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Biblical and Oriental Series 


SAMUEL A. B. MERCER, General Editor 


THE LIVING RELIGIONS 
OF THE WORLD 


"Biblical and Oriental Series 


SAMUEL A. B. MERCER, General Editor 
The object of this Series on the Bible and Oriental 


Civilization is to make the results of expert investi- 
gation accessible to laymen. Sometimes these results 
will be presented in the form of daily readings, and 
sometimes in that of continuous discussion. Specialists 
in every case will be employed, who will endeavor to 
present their subjects in the most effective and profit- 
able way. 





Tue Livinc RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD 
By John A. Maynard 


THE Book or GENESIS FOR BIBLE CLASSES AND PRI- 
VATE STUDY 
By Samuel A. B. Mercer 


THE GrowTH oF RELicious AND Mora. IDEAS IN 
E.cyPT 
By Samuel A. B. Mercer 


RELicious AND Mora. IpEas in BasyLonia AND As- 
SYRIA 
By Samuel A. B. Mercer 


LirE AND GROWTH OF ISRAEL 
By Samuel A. B. Mercer 


TUTANKHAMEN AND EcypToLocy 
By Samuel A. B. Mercer 


A Survey oF HEBREW EDUCATION 
By John A. Maynard 
THe BirtH oF JUDAISM 
By John A. Maynard (in preparation). 


MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING COMPANY 


~~ deol nk nen 
t 4 1 asin i * 
a hype fied ha no 
aS aye wi Ming Ge its 
Lae id n/ 


IGTONS 


CE 
PUA L St 





By 


JOHN A..“MAYNARD, M.A., Ph.D., Pd.D., D.D 


Associate Professor of Semitic Languages and of the History 
of Religion in Bryn Mawr College. Fellow of the 
Society of Oriental Research. Member 
of the Oriental Institute of the 
University of Chicago 


MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO. 
MILWAUKEE, WIS. 


A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. 
LONDON 


COPYRIGHT BY 
THE MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CoO., 
1925. 


THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY 
DEDICATED TO FRIENDS OF MANY LANDS AND CREEBS 
WHO BY THE TESTIMONY OF THEIR LIFE 
AND OF THEIR WORDS 
HAVE TAUGHT THE AUTHOR 
THAT THERE ARE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES 
IN CHRIST 


' é 
a ‘4 
rh te 





CONTENTS 


Forpworp: Meruops or Srupy 
A List oF ImMportTANT DATES . 
I.—ANIMISM . 
II.—BuppHISM 
I1I.—HINDUISM SM ac WAVINE Roun OSLAGRE 
IV.—TuHeE RELIGIONS OF CHINA AND TIBET 
V.—TuHE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 
VI.— JUDAISM 
VII.—IsuLAM . 
CoNCLUSION 
INDEX . 


9 ; 


r rie) eect i * . 





FOREWORD 


THE OBJECT OF THIS BOOK is to give a practical 
survey of the religions of the world today and 
to offset some of the loose notions about compara- 
tive religions common among us. Some of the re- 
ligions of the world are in a process of decadence, 
others are stationary, and that means an un- 
healthy condition. Others are living and growing. 
The World War has taught us that we can no 
longer think in national issues without involving 
world issues. This is true of religion. Every- 
where in the world, the Christian Church is en- 
gaged in a missionary work which has now passed 
the stage of sporadic evangelism, and reached a 
critical stage of growth. We want to help the 
average Christian to think more intelligently of 
the problems thus created, and to be fair to 
racial groups different from the Anglo-American. 
A study of the living religions of the world should 
teach us to enter sympathetically into the hearts 
of men, to see them like ourselves as parts of that 
great whole, each having a responsibility towards 
it and a contribution to make to it. In no case 
has the contribution been fully made. We our- 
selves are not what we should be. We have left 


1x 


x The Living Religions of the World 


many things undone, many words unsaid, many | 
thoughts unformed. It behooves us to be patient, 
kind, and fair. We want also to think coura- 
geously. Gifts of money to mission work should be 
accompanied by good-will towards men and the 
prayers of understanding hearts. 

Is not this book too small for the purpose? We 
think not, if it is realized that most people do 
not need and do not care for encyclopedic learn- 
ing, but certainly want, or should want, on this 
subject, a set of ideas which will not be too for- 
eign to their ordinary mental processes. We there- 
fore have endeavored to present and to correlate 
essential facts bearing on the non-Christian re- 
ligions of today, so that this book can be used as a 
basis of study in an adult group or in the high 
school department of a Church school. 

A good method of study is to read a chapter 
first for general understanding, and a second 
time for a more careful knowledge of details. Then 
read the synopsis of the chapter, dwelling on each 
sentence, reviewing mentally what you know 
about it. If necessary, look up the corresponding 
section again. Glance over these pages the day 
after, and then read the synopsis in the same 
way as before. 

If the student desires to pursue the study of 
the subject, he can easily do so by reading the 
references given at the end of each chapter. These 
are grouped in three sections. The first one gives 
references to G. A. Barton’s The Religions of the 


Foreword xi 


World, which is unsurpassed as a college text 
book. Section B generally gives references to the 
best text book for more advanced students, namely 
G. F. Moore’s History of Religions, in two vol- 
umes. Section C refers the reader to more spe- 
cialized literature. In a field of study which is 
practically new to the average student, it is a 
good policy to master thoroughly a shorter book 
before one reads extensively a literature of the 
subject which necessarily includes many contra- 
dictions and a number of errors. The student or 
teacher who will study a chapter in this text 
book, according to the principles given above, 
should then take the source given in group A, 
namely, Barton’s work, or a similar section in the 
books on History of Religion, by Hume, Soper, or 
Hawkins. No book more than ten years old should 
be read as a substitute. Then the reading in group 
B should be taken up before source material in 
group C be taken up. Repetitio est mater studi- 
orum is a true motto. If to repetition is added 
evolution and development of ideas, success is 
certain. 

In no field of study is there such need of a 
disciplined mind. The literature of the subject is 
immense. The author would strongly advise his 
readers not to waste their time with any book 
emphasizing the sexual element in (so-called) 
comparative religion. Their authors commonly 
have an unhealthy mind and their scholarly prep- 
aration is usually as bad as their critical sense. 


xii The Living Religions of the World 


This volume limits itself to living religions of . 
the world. Babylonian and Egyptian religion can 
be studied in Professor S. A. B. Mercer’s books in 
this series. The Hebrew religion is described in 
the Life and Growth of Israel, by S. A. B. Mercer, 
and in The Birth of Judaism (in preparation) 
by myself. A volume on primitive Semitic relig- 
ions and one on the Religions of Persia are also 
planned. The latter will treat of Parsism, which 
is not included here, because it scarcely exists to- 
day as a world problem. j 

If a class studying the book is large enough 
to form two groups, the questions for discussion 
could be divided among them, one group taking 
the affirmative point of view, and the other the 
negative. 

My thanks are due to my colleague, Professor 
R. D. Owen, and to Professor S. A. B. Mercer, a 
friend of long standing, for reading my manu- 
script and offering valuable suggestions. 


A LIST OF IMPORTANT DATES 


Probable Date of the Exodus. 


Approximate date of Zoroaster. 
Amos preaches at Bethel. 

Birth of Lao-Tze. 

Birth of Buddha. 

Birth of Confucius. 

Buddhism brought to Ceylon. 
Approximate date of Bhagavad Gita. 
Birth of Christ. 


The Crucifixion. The Resurrection. Foundation of 
the Christian Church. 

Official introduction of Buddhism into China. 

Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. 

Death of Rabbi Akiba. 

Probable date of the Mishnah. 

Buddhism brought to Japan. 

Birth of Muhammad. 

The emigration of Muhammad to Medina (Hijra). 

Jerusalem taken by the Moslems. 

Abbasid Caliphate. 

Fall of the Abbasid Caliphate. 

Last Crusade. 

Death of Kabir. 

Saint Francis Xavier arrives in India. 

Jesuit missionary work begins in Japan. 

Matteo Ricci establishes the Jesuit mission in 
China. 


xii 


XIV 
1800 


1803 
1818 
1828 
1844 
1859 
1875 


1911 
1924 


The Living Religions of the World 


Effective penetration of India by the West. Carey > 
begins Serampore Mission. 

Wahhabis conquer Mecca and occupy it ten years. 

Robert Morrison publishes Chinese Bible. 

Foundation of the Brahma Samaj. 

Protestant Mission work in China. 

Protestant Mission work in Japan. 

Foundation of the Arya Samaj and the Theo- 
sophical Society. 

Republic proclaimed in China. 

Abolition of the Turkish Caliphate. 


CHAPTER I 


A\NIMISM 


1. Where can animism be best studied. 2. Errors of in- 
terpretation to be avoided. 3. Potentialities of men of 
lower culture. 4. Working definition of religion. 5. Mana. 
6. Taboo. 7. Magic. 8. Life after death. 9. Transmigra- 
tion. 10, Manes, 11. Nature powers. 12. God. 18. Fetish. 
14, Priesthood. 15. Sacrifice. 16. Totem. 17. Extension 
of animism in the world. 18. Recrudescence of animistic 
practices in the western world. 19. Our attitude towards 
animism. 

ANIMISM was once the common belief of man- 
kind. It is a form of religion still combined with 
an undeveloped and perhaps embryonic philoso- 
phy, and also connected with primitive science. 
The religious aspect of this early science is often 
called magic. 

1. The best place to study primitive religion 
is evidently among wilder tribes which have re- 
mained relatively uninfluenced by the growth of 
civilization. Investigators and students must how- 
ever be careful in noting what stage of evolu- 
tion is represented by a tribe. Its culture may 
show such evidences of decay that it would be 
practically worthless as a field of research of prim- 


l 


2 The Living Religions of the World 


itive religion. A good many erroneous ideas have 
crept into books written on primitive religion 
because the Aruntas, a wild Australian tribe, 
were described with the greatest care by B. Spen- 
cer and W. B. Gillen in an epoch-making work, 
The Native Tribes of Central Australia. The 
abundance of their documentation, not always 
critically sifted, led Professor Durckheim to 
build up on that basis an elaborate theory on 
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, which 
is entirely misleading and of little value, because 
the Arunta do not represent a primitive culture 
at all. 

Today, we may find populations of very low 
culture in Africa, where good studies of the Pyg- 
mies and of the Bushmen and Hottentots have 
been made. The Bantus and the negroes of West 
Africa represent a far higher level. In India, 
remnants of pre-Dravidian tribes, more especially 
the Veddas, the Todas, the Andamanese, have 
been thoroughly studied. In Australia and Mel- 
anesia, sociologists have been also at work. The 
American Indian is also fairly well known, but 
he represents a higher level. 

2. When reading works written by observers 
of these races, whether they be competent or not, 
we must guard against errors of interpreta- 
tion. 

First, we must remember that the present deg- 
radation of certain tribes may be due to their 
having been defeated in warfare long ago, and 


Animism 3 


driven to the poorest lands. It does not neces- 
sarily represent their earlier culture. 

Secondly, the difference of mental make-up be- 
tween an uncultured race and ourselves is not 
fundamental. Individuals from African and 
American Indian tribes have proved it frequently. 
To say here that the exception proves the rule 
may be witty. It is nevertheless, as always, un- 
true. 

Thirdly, the very basis of Christian missions 
is that all men are equal before God. The writer 
of this book will ever remember the saintly per- 
sonality of Bishop Johnson, of the Diocese of 
Lagos, a native of Sierra Leone. He is still wait- 
ing to see a better man. If countless numbers of 
men and women, through conversions to Chris- 
tianity, have reached such a high level of char- 
acter, it is clear that they had within themselves 
amazing possibilities of growth, spiritual, ethical, 
and mental. 

3. It is hard to believe that these potential- 
ities remained always altogether dormant. If ob- 
servers or students of primitive religion claim 
that it is always and only limited to lower ele- 
ments, and that it does not generally include, for 
instance, some form of faith in God, we shall 
do well if we are somewhat skeptical as to the 
qualifications of these students. We shall be led 
to suppose that they lacked sympathy with the 
people they examined, and also that their own 
conception of religion was over intellectualized 


4 The Living Religions of the World 


and probably unreal. Their isolated testimony 
does not make void the great discovery of relig- 
ious ethnology that the heart of man is uniformly 
complex but is also fundamentally similar. The 
differences between us and the more primitive 
races are only of degree and of details. Psycho- 
logical processes are identical. 

4. Today we notice the achievements of nature 
peoples in the field of basketry, carving, and weav- 
ing. We are also led to infer that they achieved 
some interesting results in that noble art which 
is called religion. Many observations now confirm 
the inference. The life of primitive peoples shows 
this art in a constant decoration on the web of 
their life. The art may be barbarous or unprac- 
tical, the craftsmanship may not allow delicacy 
and speed of execution, the material may be of 
poor abiding quality, the product may not stand 
competition with Western products, but the art 
is there always, and God as Power, and to some 
extent as the Lord of the Good, is the first motive. 
The other is great secret concerning what hap- 
pens beyond this life. An art and secrets, that 
is religion. 

5. Among all primitive peoples one finds a 
belief in a sacred and mysterious Power, work- 
ing from the Unseen as an inexhaustible source 
of spiritual electricity. It is called mana (pro- 
nounce the first a short, and the second long). 
This word is taken over from a Melanesian dia- 
lect. It cannot be translated into English. “It 


Animism 5 


is only a word,” said the Maori authority, Mr. 
J. S. Tikao, to H. Beattie, “but no one can wash 
it out.”” It was a fire. The earthquake is fire, but 
common fire used for cooking has no mana. A 
sacred fire with mana may be covered up, but if 
dug up, even a hundred years afterwards, its 
mana would kill. 

The connotation of the word mana includes, 
therefore, religious awe. This emotional element 
is most important. The fact that much laughter 
or merriment may be mixed with religion should 
not lead us astray. 

6. Closely connected with mana is taboo, or 
tabu, or tapu. Literally it means marked off, 
marked exceedingly. Contact with a person or 
thing which is tabu entails mystic danger. This 
mystic quality is physically contagious. Hence 
the idea of prohibition came to be commonly asso- 
ciated with the word tabu. Tabu had a real, prac- 
tical value. The man or the men who were in 
charge of tabooing would regulate food produc- 
tion and prevent food waste by a regular system 
of cultivation tabus. Herman Melville describes 
in Omoo how the captain of a whaler reaching 
one of the Marquesa Islands persuaded the chiefs 
to tabu the ship in order to prevent disorderly 
scenes and facilities for desertion, which would 
ensue were the natives allowed to come off to 
it freely. So the chiefs laid their heads together 





1 Journal of the Polynesian Society, 30: 16-18. 


6 The Living Religions of the World 


and “went over a little mummery” as Melville 
will describe it. Then the leader tore a long strip 
of bark cloth from his girdle and gave it to the 
mate, who fastened the mystic symbol to a mast. 
A party of natives who were swimming towards 
the ship turned about immediately with loud 
cries of “Tabu! tabu!” This mystic ban should 
be removed by a special ceremony. When tabu was 
abolished by the missionaries, mana disappeared. 

The ritual laying and removing of tabu give us 
the essential character of primitive religion, which 
is primarily social and practical rather than 
individual, and still less intellectual. Religion 
consists mainly of proper manners in the spiri- 
tual world. 

7. Magic is less respectful. It practically leaves 
God out, it aims at winning over or conquering 
the influence of the spirits for a utilitarian and 
generally mischievous purpose. Magic is clearly 
distinguished from religion. As Marett says, 
“Magic includes all bad ways, religion all good 
ways of dealing with the supernatural.” All 
witchcraft is bad. The wizard is hated and feared. 
Part of the religion of lower culture races is de- 
pendence on the ability of witch-doctors to com- 
bat witchcraft by counter sorcery. 

Wizards and witches can snatch the soul or 
vital principle of man. The soul has sometimes 
a multiple form. It is connected with blood, with 
breath, with the vital heat of the body, with 
the shadow, with the name. The soul beats in the 


Animism 7 


heart and shines in the eyes. At night, it is 
visited by other souls or goes out visiting them. 
This is dreaming. It is an ethereal substance. A 
witch-doctor can for a consideration safeguard 
a life from ordinary danger by placing the soul 
in a tree. If the tree is cut, so dies the man. If 
more powerful magic harm the man in spite of 
this precaution, the tree will dry up and die also. 

8. Belief in survival of life after death is uni- 
versal among lower races. Hence their elaborate 
and sometimes cruel forms of mourning, and their 
careful attention to funeral rites. The departed 
are provided with food and drink, clothing and 
tools, utensils and weapons, and even with wives, 
cattle, and slaves, who, at least in the case of 
mighty men, were buried with him. After death 
the soul may bear a new name; it is essentially 
the same in the case of strong men. As for weaker 
persons, their soul is rather unimportant and 
it is often held that it soon fades away. People 
of no account and children do not live again. 
The same tribe may not even entertain a unified 
idea of the place of departed spirits. It may be 
the grave itself, or the forest, or a great village 
under the earth. 

9. The souls of infants emanate from dead per- 
sons. Souls may enter also the body of animals. 
It is not necessarily a complete reincarnation 
of one soul into a new life. The form of this be- 
lief in transmigration varies but it is very com- 
mon, although not universal. The belief that the 


8 The Living Religions of the World 


underworld is a “land of no return” is also 
fairly common. 

10. The survival of the soul is thus uncon- 
nected with ethics in our sense of the word, but 
it is with the importance of the man, or his 
power. The connection with ethics is indirect. 
If you treat a man wrongly, he will remember 
even after death. Indeed the departed know more 
than the living. They are strong and often vindic- 
tive. They take interest in the affairs of this 
world. Therefore they should be feared, worship- 
ped, and their needs duly considered. 

The world is ruled by the souls of great men 
or culture-heroes. Men have an habitual, all-per- 
vading sense of dependence on them. “It is the 
shades who guard and protect them, the shades 
who try to hurt them; the shades are those to 
whom they pray, the shades are those whom they 
fear and must placate. The shades are that from 
which they can never escape. It is the shades 
who control every act and thought.’” Manism is 
the essential feature of their religion 

11. Other spirits are nature powers. Their 
birth is due to the sense of wonder. This un- 
expected storm which darkens the sky, uproots 
mighty trees, and upturns the canoes of the un- 
wary, how did it happen? This deep forest, hiding 
its silent mystery behind morasses and an im- 
penetrable jungle, who is its master and lord? 





2F. H. Melland, In Witch Bound Africa, p. 132. 


Animism 9 


This immense river which flows for ever and ever, 
mother of fishes and alligators, it is also a mystery. 
To respect, to acknowledge by a gift the rights 
of those who have the power behind this mystery, 
is vain. Thus are the spirits of big trees, of rivers 
and mountains, of springs and of lakes, and of the 
stormy wind, worshipped by sacrifice. 

12. Above these ghosts and spirits, but usually 
without any essential connection with them, is 
God. He is called the Great Great, the Master, 
the Powerful, He who speaks, He who fashions, 
the One from on High, the One of the Sky, the 
One of the Light. His dwelling is usually in the 
sky. In Africa he has no priests, no images, no 
temple. Magic has no power over him. He is 
really an absentee Lord. Some tribes, like the 
Kaonde, studied by Melland, remember him only 
when they want rain. Then the whole village, 
men, women, and children, congregates in the 
open air, near a tall white pole just erected. The 
headman sits in the centre. He says “Thou God, 
we are all thy people, send us rain.” Then the 
people clap their hands and return to the village. 

It is quite certain that he is not a deified chief, 
because the Negrillos have no chief and worship 
the dead far less than the more civilized Bantu, 
and yet their idea of a Supreme God is very pre- 
cise. This God is not essentially the principle 
of good. The Wanika say that we are God’s hens 
and chickens. When some one dies, it means that 
a stranger has arrived in heaven and God wanted 


10 The Living Religions of the World 


some poultry to entertain the guest at a feast. 
The explanation thus given may be partly ficti- 
tious, the belief as to the character of God which 
it illustrates is real and common. 

13. A spirit may be induced to dwell in a 
material object. We call it a fetish. The fetish 
may be a hen or some animal into which the spirit 
has entered. It is usually an inanimate object, a 
receptacle for the spirit, sometimes in the shape 
of an image. A tribal fetish may be a large bundle 
of various sacred objects, leaves, eggshells, bones, 
pieces of skull, teeth, serpent heads, bird beaks, 
etc. 

The fetish may be either kept hidden in a 
special house or placed over the door of a house, 
in the fields, at the entrance of the village. When 
vacated by the spirit, it may be sold or given 
away. Thus do fetishes come to our museums. 
They are even made as curios for exportation. In 
that case they have only the appearance of a 
fetish; a spirit never dwelt in them. An amulet 
is a kind of fetish carried about the body. 

Fetishism does not explain all of worship, still 
less is it all of religion. 

14. External manifestations of religion are very 
simple. In Africa, when it is a familiar affair, 
it is performed mostly by the head of the house, 
who prepares his eldest son to succeed him. When 
the prestige of such a man goes beyond his family, 
he may be asked to perform rites for other fam- 
ilies or even for a village. He may thus become 


Animism 11 


a professional, or more commonly a semi-profes- 
sional, As such, he interprets dreams, makes 
remedies for the sick, and charms and amulets. 
He exorcises the possessed, enacts and removes 
tabus, makes rain, offers sacrifices, presides 
over initiations, combats magic. The secrets of 
such a ministry may not necessarily be taught by 
a man to his eldest son, but to any one of his 
sons, or even to a stranger willing to pay a fee. 
The would-be student may have had a real vo- 
cation by a dream, by a mysterious illness, or by 
spirit possession. There may be several students 
desirous to learn from a famous witch-doctor, 
and forming a technical school. Not only may 
the same man very well combine the office of 
house minister with that of diviner and physician 
revered by all, but he may also be a dreaded 
sorcerer to whom people come in secret for mali- 
cious magic. 

Public ritual is often associated with ritual 
dancing and singing. The dancers wear special 
ornaments, and often masks. 

15. The meaning of sacrifice varies. The manes 
need food and beer and blood, and these are given 
to them. There is not, in Africa at least, any idea 
of communion. The spirit should be also propi- 
tiated by gifts of the same nature. The intrinsic 
value of the sacrifice is not important. Saliva is 
often offered. To God above, the sacrifice is only 
symbolic, as when the Masai offer him a handful 
of grass or a pebble. 


12 The Living Religions of the World 


16. Among many tribes a social unit, tribe, 
clan, secret society, may have a totem. This totem 
is not an individual but a class of animals, a 
vegetable species, a kind of mineral product, or 
even an atmospheric phenomenon like the wind 
or a heavenly body. To the totem certain emo- 
tional and social values are attached so that it 
is looked upon as an ancestor, protector, and 
symbol of social unity and identity. Totemism is 
therefore not religious in itself, but because the 
whole life of primitive man is religious. If the 
totem is an animal, it may not be killed or eaten, 
except in a sacramental feast. The totem is not 
a fetish. The fetish is individual, the totem is 
a class. Totemism does not exist among the ma- 
jority of primitive peoples. Half of the negro 
races and two thirds of the yellow races (includ- 
ing the South American) never had any totemism. 
Such a practice should not be taken, as it was 
by Durkheim, as the explanation of religion. 

17. Religious statistics credit Animism with 
the allegiance of about one tenth of the popula- 
tion of the world. This is true of animism proper. 
In addition to that we must remember that there 
is much animism in lands recently conquered by 
Islam, by Hinduism, and in many cases by Chris- 
tianity. Animism is really the fundamental re- 
ligion of the masses in China. It is strong in 
Tibet and Siam. One wonders whether it would 
not be truer to say that half of the world, or 
nearly, is animistic, at least in part. This oldest 


Animism 13 


religion of the world would therefore be one of 
the most important yet, perhaps the second in 
the world and next to Christianity. 

18. Animism is not organized for propaganda. 
It is not aggressive. It has even learned to be shy, 
and, as it were, ashamed before more intellectually 
developed beliefs. It has been dying of a slow 
death for hundreds of years in what is now called 
the European civilized world. It is still found 
there to some extent and is usually called super- 
stition. We may probably say with fairness that, 
were it not for the remnants of ancient native 
population, North America, and, still more, Aus- 
tralia, are rather free from animism, because the 
immigrant stock which settled in these countries 
broke from old associations. But even there, hered- 
itary tendencies seemingly dead are only asleep 
especially among people less accustomed to social 
and cultural inhibitions. They appear again in 
some features of what was called “revivalism” 
and is now more often named “Pentecostal” re- 
ligion. Preachers cultivating these highly emo- 
tional states think they are a return to “Old Time 
Religion.” So they are, for they bring back a re- 
ligion older than Early Christianity.’ 


3 Professor F. M. Davenport’s book on Primitive Traits in Re- 
ligious Revivals, should be known to religious leaders in com- 
munities endangered by recrudescences of this type. It would 
however be unwise to use the book as such. It should be trans- 
lated into sympathetic terms by the man who has read it. 
There would be far less call for Old Time Religion if the Church 
made religion her affair and that a real one, and if she fully 
gratified the longings of the heart of man. 


14 The Living Religions of the World 


Another form of animism is found in “Spiri- 
tualism,” in so far that it is ghost possession. The 
author of this book does not want this statement 
to be understood as a sweeping condemnation of 
“Spiritualism.” He is not qualified to judge it. 
He has only observed that the movement seems to 
attract mostly the weakly inhibited and does not 
improve their higher reasoning powers. Men more 
highly cultured may suffer less from it, but are 
not necessarily improved. In the same way, a 
steelworker can get rid of alcoholic poison which 
harms a sedentary man. But it is safer for all to 
avoid “spirits.” Writing about the present situa- 
tion in England, the Rt. Hon. C. T. G. Masterman 
says “No Church is gaining any converts in an 
England still half insane after the war, and seek- 
ing wizards to cure them of bodily ills, and 
witches to open up communications with the 
dead.” If things be so with our Anglo-Saxon, it 
behooves us not to expect perfection at once in 
the new Churches of the Mission Field. 

19. In spite of its temporary recrudescence, 
closely paralleled by recent developments in the 
field of musie and art, Animism has no real mes- 
sage for the modern world. 

Its decay in Africa and Melanesia is evident. 
The influx of civilization is bringing about the 
ruin of the whole social fabric of native races 
and often of the race itself. This destruction of 
lower culture peoples is not the work of mission- 





The Churchman, January 3, 1925, p. 10. 


Animism 15 


aries today, whatever may have been true in the 
past. Modern missionaries are usually the best 
friends of men less civilized than we think we 
are. By their propaganda against alcohol, by their 
teaching of sexual purity, by their setting forth 
a simple, happy, Christian life, they offer to lower 
culture races, a means of safeguarding their ex- 


istence. SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


A. 
G. A. Barton. The Religions of the World. Chapter I. 
B. 


E. W. SmitTuH. The Religion of Lower Races as illustrated 
by the African Bantu. New York: Macmillan, 1923, 
pp. 97. C. 


A. Leroy. The Religion of the Primitives. New York: 
Macmillan, 1922. 

R. R. Maretr. The Threshold of Religion. New York: 
Macmillan, 1914. 

Articles on Ancestor Worship, Death and Disposal of 
the Dead (Introductory and Primitive), EHthics 
(Rudimentary), Fetishism (Introductory), God 
(Primitive and Savage), Mana, Orenda, Secret So- 
cieties (African), Soul (Primitve), Tabu, Totemism, 
Worship (Primitive), in Hastings’ Encyclopedia of 
Religion and Ethics. 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. Can you illustrate from your personal knowledge of your- 
self, and what you know of men of early culture, that our 
psychological processes are identical? 

2. To what extent does the development of a child’s mind 
illustrate the animism of a previous stage of our race? Show 
also dissimilarities. 

8. Can you find instances of tabu in American life? 

4. Do you know of remaining magical practices among us? 

5. What are the limitations of animism as an influence upon 
the development of character? 


CHAPTER II 


BUDDHISM AND JAINISM 


1. The Buddhist world. 2. Life of Siddartha. 3. The 
non-reality of being. The aggregates. 4. Deliverance from 
pain. 5. The four noble truths. 6. The eightfold path. 
7. Buddhist Beatitudes; 8. Nirvana. 9. Attitude towards 
the body. 10. Buddha’s method of teaching. 11. An esti- 
mate of his character. 12. Formula of admission. 18. 
Monasticism. 14. The salvation of women. 15. Asoka. 16. 
Testimony of the “rock” and “pillar” edicts to the char- 
acter of early Buddhism. 17. Kanishka. 18. Mahayana and 
Hinayana. 19. Tantrayana. 20. Buddhist temples and wor- 
ship. 21. Relations of Buddhism and Christianity. 22. 
Theosophy. 28. Neo-Buddhism. 24. Christian missions in 
Buddhist lands. 25. Jainism. Parsva. 26. Mahavira. 27. 
Respect of all life. Nirvana. 28. The three divisions of 
Jainism. 29. Decadence. 

1. BuppuisMm began in the fifth century B. C., as 
a protest movement against Brahmanism, but 
within Hinduism. It had within itself the char- 
acteristics of a possible world religion, and it 
has today 138,000,000 adherents. Its zone of in- 
fluence in other lands, especially China and Japan, 
includes 360,000,000 other people. In India proper 
Buddhism is only a memory. Buddhism has dis- 
appeared also from Java and Sumatra and from 
Turkestan. Today it is active in Japan only. 


16 


Buddhism 17 


2. Siddartha, the founder of Buddhism, was 
the son of the Rajah of Kapilavastu, a town be- 
tween Benares and the Himalayas. He was born 
about 560 B.C. His family’s name was Gautama 
and the name of his tribe Sakya (pronounced 
Shakya). Hence he was called later Sakyamuni, 
the Sakya ascetic. The title Buddha given to him 
means “enlightened.” 

It is difficult to distinguish in his life the legen- 
dary from the real. After all, both are equally im- 
portant, as they are equally believed. The legend 
says that Siddartha’s father kept him safely shel- 
tered from any knowledge of the sad things of 
life, until one day the young prince, leaving his 
beautiful palace, saw a leper, a very old man, 
and a corpse, and the pain of India laid its cold 
hand upon his heart. In order to liberate his 
mind, the young prince abandoned wealth and 
power, his wife Yosidhara, and his little boy 
Rahula. He took the beggar’s bowl and wandered 
through the land, seeking the solution of the mys- 
tery of life and of the problem of evil. He was 
twenty-one when he made this “Great Renuncia- 
tion.” For six years, he tried to find liberation 
by philosophical mysticism and by asceticism, un- 
til he saw the vanity of it all. He sat one day un- 
der a certain fig-tree, called since by his followers 
the Bo-tree, the tree of wisdom, determined to 
stay there until he had found out the truth. As 
the morning sun rose in the sky, he saw; he was 
enlightened. 


18 The Living Religions of the World 


3. The essential of Buddhist doctrine is that 
there is no being, there is only a becoming. There 
is no soul, but only a succession of mental states. 
A person is only a collection of five aggregates 
constantly changing: 

Material elements. 

Sense perceptions. 

Emotions. 

Thoughts, as reactions to feelings. 
. Consciousness. 

This Soin of view is well expressed by these 
verses ascribed to Vajira, one of the Sisters of 
the Order: 


“gue 99 to 


“MARA 


“Who has this being fashioned? Where is 
The maker of this being? Whence hath it sprung? 
Where doth this being cease and pass away? 


“VASJIRA 


* ‘Being?’ Why dost thou harp upon that word? 
’"Mong false opinions, Mara, art thou strayed. 
This a mere bundle of formations is. 

Therefrom no ‘being’ mayest thou obtain, 

For e’en as, when the factors are arranged, 
By the word ‘chariot’ is the product known, 
So doth our usage covenant to say 

‘A being’ when the Aggregates are there.’” 


“Neither self nor aught belonging to self, 
brethren, can really and truly exist.” So goes one 
of the reputed sayings of Buddha. 

4, The unity of forces which make a being must 
eventually be dissolved, in the case of the gods 
hundreds of thousands of years after their birth, 


Buddhism 19 


in the case of some insects a few hours only. In 
every case, the cause of sorrow is a vain effort to 
delay this dissolution. Beginning is fraught with 
the ending, birth with death, life with pain, which 
is craving or thirst. 

Ignorance is the cause of this misery. It leads 
men to believe in their separateness from the ex- 
ternal world and from other beings in the past, 
in the present, and in the future. Men fail to see 
that they are a mere fleeting result of causes. 
They consider real what is not real, prize what 
is worthless, and pursue what is continually es- 
caping. 


5. This ignorance can be dispelled by the four 
noble (Aryan) truths: 


First. There is pain. 

Secondly. This comes from desire (or crav- 
ing, or thirst). 

Thirdly. Pain can be conquered. It is over- 
come in Nirvana. 

Fourthly. There is a way leading to such 
a state or condition. 


6. The way is the Middle Path or Noble Eight- 
fold Path, which has eight stages, the first two 
belonging to uprightness in deed, the third to up- 
rightness in word, the five others to uprightness 
in thought. | 

The first stage is Right Belief. It is the under- 
standing of life, and of its three woes, old age, 
disease, and death. It is a comprehension of the 


20 The Living Religions of the World 


fact that everything flows and that there is no 
self. It is the right acceptance of the four Noble 
Truths of the Law of Buddha. 

The second stage is Right Aspiration. We should 
be compassionate, benevolent, and helpful. 

The third stage is Right Speech. It means love 
and compassion, mildness, and the love of the 
truth. 

The fourth stage is Right Action, when every 
phase of conduct becomes full of sympathy and 
compassion. It means, for the layman, keeping 
the five precepts, avoiding murder, theft, adultery, 
drunkenness, and lying. For the monk, there are 
three additional precepts, namely, abstaining 
from partaking of food after midday, from using 
high and wide beds, and from watching plays. 

The fifth stage is Right Livelihood, when life 
becomes purer and every action is harmonious 
and produces serenity. One should not make 
money by harmful means, such as trafficking in 
slaves, weapons of war, or liquor. 

The sixth stage is Right Effort. It is training 
of the mind and of the will. 

The seventh stage is Right Mindfulness, a con- 
centration of the thoughts on holy purposes. 

The eighth stage is Right Rapture. In it one 
constantly ponders upon holy things with a pure 
mind, realizing the highest moral ideals in one’s 
person, in deep meditation on the realities of 
life. 


Buddhism 21 


There are ten fetters which must be broken by 
those who follow the path: 


Delusion of self, 

Doubt, 

Efficacy of good works, 
Sensuality or bodily passions, 
Tll-will, 

Love of life on earth, 

Desire for future life, 

Pride, 

Self-righteousness, 

Ignorance. 

7. Those who break these fetters become ar- 
hats (venerable ones). They attain nirvana, the 
highest bliss. The Buddhist Beatitudes have been 
translated as follows: 


“To shun the fool, to court the wise, 
This is the highest Paradise. 


“Pay ye respect where it is due, 
So will true blessing wait on you. 


“Seek a fit place and there remain 
Striving self-knowledge to attain. 


“Tf in past lives you’ve stored up merit 
The fruits thereof you'll now inherit. 


“Let wisdom, skill, and discipline 
And gracious kindly words be thine. 


“Tend parents, cherish wife and child, 
Pursue a blameless life and mild. 


“Live thou devout, give ample alms, 
Protect thy kin from life’s alarms. 


22 The Living Religions of the World 


“Do good, shun ill, and still beware 
Of the red wine’s insidious snare. 


“So do thou persevere in good; 
This is the true Beatitude. 


“Be humble, with thy lot content, 
Grateful, and ever reverent. 


“Study the Law of Righteousness ; 
This is the path that leads to Bliss. 


“Be patient thou, the Saints frequent, 
And ponder still their argument ; 


“The Noble Truths, the life austere 
And chaste, that brings Nirvana here; 


“The life from eightfold bond secure, 
The life of peace that crowns the pure; 


“This is the Highest Bliss to find; 
This the chief blessing of mankind.” 


8. Buddhist texts bearing on Nirvana give va- 
rious points of view. The word means “blowing 
off.” Some texts describe it as annihilation, others 
as existence beyond reason and conception. A 
third group of texts are frankly agnostic and 
limit themselves to saying what Nirvana is not. 
Apparently Gautama discouraged discussion on 
its nature but emphasized the search for it. He 
is reported to have said, “As the vast ocean, O 
disciples, is impregnated with the flavor of salt, 
so also, my disciples, this law and discipline is 
impregnated with but one flavor, with the taste 
of deliverance.” Nirvana is a sinless, calm state 
of mind, perfect peace, goodness, and wisdom. It 
is the cool happiness which comes from righteous 


Buddhism Zo 


living coupled with a trance-like mystical experi- 
ence attained through meditation. 
Nirvana is deliverance from transmigration, 
which Indian pessimism had learned to dread. 
Modern Buddhists understand it as being one 
of these three conditions (or a blending of two) : 


1. Annihilation, 
2. Extinction of evil, 
3. A paradise of bliss. 

The three points of view are justified by early 
documents. The three were certainly believed in 
India, although the third is now found mostly in 
Mahayana Buddhism. 

9. The body is called an impure and foul thing, 
a wound or sore, the old worn out skin of a snake, 
a dressed up lump covered with wounds, a heap 
of corruption, the greatest of pains. Disgust for 
it is the motive for religious life. “Passion and 
hatred have their origin from this (body); dis- 
gust, delight, and horror arise from this body; 
arising from this body, doubts vex the mind as 
boys vex a crow.” And yet suicide is forbidden, 
in Buddhism. Food is to be used with moderation, 
but enjoyed. Bodily acts are to be watched over, 
in self-control, thus cutting down the forest of 
lust. It is good to keep on meditating on a corpse 
eaten by worms. Visits to a cemetery or to crema- 
tion grounds are good spiritual hygiene. 

10. It is not improbable that Gautama began 
to preach at once the essentials of this message, 
if “preaching” can be used to designate his method 


24 The Living Religions of the World 


of making converts. He called his doctrine a 
medicine, a therapeutic. He was the physician 
who cures the disease of individuality by dialec- 
tic. He exposed the point of view of his hearer, 
the plausibility of the other point of view, the 
futility of discussion, then the middle path. “A 
man wounded b¥ a poisoned arrow,” said he, 
“would not wait to have it taken out until he knew 
all about the man who shot him.” Many of his 
hearers had highly trained minds and revelled in 
hair splitting word distinctions. For forty-five 
years, until his death in 480 B.C. Buddha wan- 
dered over India in the region of the United Prov- 
inces, until he entered into the Great Peace 
which comes after the Path. His faithful disciple 
Ananda was weeping. 

“Peace, Ananda!” he said. “Weep not. Have 
I not told thee that it is in the nature of things 
that we must be separated from all that is dearest 
and nearest to us? Must not that which is made 
up of component parts dissolve and pass away? 
. . . Remember that life and death are one.” 


11. The figure of Buddha remains today win- 
some and majestic. He was humble, tender 
hearted, courteous. He was patience, kindness, 
gentleness. He has been called the Light of Asia 
by many Europeans who admired his character 
and his life through the mist of legend. He called 
himself the Eye of Asia, according to a tradition. 
That is a designation more modest and more ac- 
curate. 


Buddhism 25 


From the very first he had had many followers, 
especially among the warriors. He organized them 
as an order of monks, to which he later added an 
order of nuns. There was a much more numerous 
third order of laymen. 


12. The formula of admission to the Order is: 


I take refuge in Buddha. 
I take refuge in the Law (Dharma). 


I take refuge in the Sangha (Order, or 
Church). 


13. Indeed the Church is a monastic order. The 
monk is above the layman because of his celibate 
life and of his separation from the world. In 
orthodox Buddhism, a layman may not reach 
Nirvana. The best he can do is to support the 
Sangha by his gifts, and to practise the rules of 
the Law which are meant for laymen. Thus may 
he deserve to have a chance to be born again as 
a monk in order to reach deliverance. 

Buddhism rejected the caste system. It pro- 
hibited the taking of life at least by monks. Thus 
hunting and wars of aggression were condemned. 

The monks may take life vows but go back to 
the world “if desire be born again in their hearts.” 
They usually dwell in monasteries. The yellow- 
robed mendicants beg their food silently, with 
downcast eyes. They thank no one for his gift. 
Their head is shaved. They must be pure, poor, 
taking no interest in the world. They read the 
holy books and meditate. 


26 The Living Religions of the World 


Versed in the Righteous Law they are, and skilful; 
Aye, and they practise too the law they preach; 
Learned and self-possessed and ever watchful, 
Living in all things as the Sages teach. 


Downcast their eyes; their paces measured, sober, 
They meditate, nor look to left or right: 

They lay not up on earth the fleeting treasure; 
Finished their quest, their lofty goal in sight! 


Poor are they too, yet touch not gold or silver; 
Each day supplies for them their simple needs; 
From many lands and towns they join the Order, 
Bound in the sacred tie of loving deeds. 


Truly Saint Francis of Assisi would have un- 
derstood them and they would have looked upon 
him as a brother and a saint, a bodhisattva. 

Monasteries are open to all, even to the scoffing 
European whose servants bring game and kill 
chickens where life is held so sacred. If the igno- 
rant respect not what is good, he hurts no one 
but himself, think the monks. 

Each monastery is self-governing. Public opin- 
ion is the only check on discipline. In Burma a 
monk who misbehaves will have to leave because 
the villagers will cease to respect him and refuse 
him food. There is no priesthood in Buddhism, at 
least in the Buddhism of Ceylon and Burma 
which best represents the teaching and practice 
of the early followers of Buddha. 

14. There are very few nuns, although, when 
the monks hold public services, the congregations 
are nearly all women. “Women,” say the monks, 
‘never understand. They cannot learn. And so 


Buddhism 27 


we say that most women must be born again, as 
men, before they can see the light, and understand 
the lawa of righteousness.” * 

15. Buddhism had a famous protector in the 
person of Asoka (pronounced Ashoka), who 
ruled over most of India (273-231 B. C.). 
should not be called a Buddhist Constantine, for 
he was a better man than the Roman Emperor. 
The edicts of Asoka engraved upon rocks and pil- 
lars show us that the Buddhist canonical texts, 
written in the Pali language and preserved in 
Ceylon, represent practically the form of the 
Buddhist teaching in Asoka’s time, although these 
texts were not written until the first century 
B. C. Asoka tried to enforce the observance of 
Dharma by edict, showing, however, a spirit of 
remarkable tolerance, as can be seen by this quo- 
tation from Rock Edict IV: 


“In such wise as has not been before in many cen- 
turies, there has been at present, owing to the inculca- 
tion of piety by King Piyadasi (one of mild, pleasant 
countenance, a new name adopted by Asoka), dear to 
the gods, growth in abstinence from taking life, in 
abstinence from ill-usage of living creatures, in proper 
behaviour towards relatives, proper behaviour towards 
Brahmans and ascetics, obedience to mother and father, 
obedience to elders. In these and other manifold ways, 
pious observance has grown, and this pious observance, 
king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, will make still to grow. 
The sons, also, and grandsons, and great-grandsons of 
king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, will foster this pious 
observance until the end of the time.” 


1H. F. Hall, The Soul of a People. p. 150-151. 


28 The Living Religions of the World 


16. Another edict defines the Law of piety as 
“compassion, almsgiving, truth, purity, gentle- 
ness, and saintliness.” This piety gives bliss here 
and hereafter. The teaching is practical, not in- 
tellectual. 

“Let small and great exert themselves,” de- 
clares the King. ... “Whatever exertions His 
sacred and glorious Majesty the King makes, are 
all for the sake of the life hereafter, so that every 
one may be freed from peril, which peril is vice. 
Difficult, however, it is to attain to such freedom, 
whether by people of low or of high degree, save 
by the utmost exertion and giving up all other 
aims. That, however, for him of high degree is 
difficult.” “Hven the small man who choses to 
exert himself, immense heavenly bliss may be 
won.” 

This teaching is in harmony with a saying of 
the Dhammapada: 


“By ourselves is evil done, 
By ourselves we pain endure, 
By ourselves we cease from wrong, 
By ourselves become we pure. 


“No one saves us but ourselves, 
No one can and no one may, 

We ourselves must tread the Path. 
Buddhas only show the way.” 


Asoka himself took the yellow robe of a monk, 
although he remained King. In his time, there 
were no statues of Buddha. The King is said to 
have built 84,000 shrines (stupas), distributing 


Buddhism 29 


among them the relics of Buddha which had been 
preserved in only eight places before. We cannot 
tell how far this reverence to Buddha was already 
a cult. The King sent missionaries to foreign 
countries. To these is due the conversion of Cey- 
lon to Buddhism. The Buddhist missionaries who 
converted Burma came from Ceylon. It is there- 
fore clear that without this missionary zeal of 
Asoka, Buddhism would have perished in its most 
authentic form. 

17. After the death of Asoka, Buddhism passed 
through a series of transformations. In north- 
western India, Greek culture brought wonderful 
forms of art. The first statues of Buddha (Gand- 
hara sculptures) are Greek in design. Gautama 
was already worshipped as a god. Thus did popu- 
lar piety take its revenge upon an agnostic relig- 
ion, which had tried to banish the soul and God. 

In the first century A.D. Kanishka, a Mongol 
King, conqueror of Northern India, became a con- 
vert to Buddhism, at least as much as he could. 
He summoned a great Buddhist council in Kash- 
mir. There, the new developments of the faith 
were sanctioned in spite of the opposition of a 
strong conservative party. 

18. The new religion was called by its advo- 
cates Mahayana, or the Great Vehicle, while the 
older point of view was labelled Hinayana Mean 
or Wretched Vehicle. Mahayana Buddhism is also 
called Northern Buddhism, and Hinayana is 
named Southern Buddhism. The distinction be- 


30 The Living Religions of the World 


tween the two systems is partly artificial but it 
is necessary for the sake of clearness. It must be 
remembered that many Northern Buddhist schol- 
ars claim that there is no distinction. 

Hinayana Buddhism has about thirty million 
adherents, Mahayana more than a hundred mil- 
lions, not to mention more than three hundred 
and sixty millions of Chinese and Japanese who 
are, to a great extent, Buddhists of the Mahayana 
type. Even in Hinayana lands one finds a good 
many animistic survivals, but they are more con- 
spicuous in Northern Buddhism. 

In Hinayana, the way of salvation is narrow. 
It leads to salvation in this life, when a monk 
may become an arhat or venerable one, by medi- 
tation and following the Path. When dying, the 
arhat enters into Nirvana. Indeed he has attained 
it in this life. 

Mahayana is Buddhist gnosticism. It is found 
in various forms. In the main it shows a broad 
way of salvation. It leads to heaven, “the beauti- 
ful world” in the West. It emphasizes the wor- 
ship of the Buddhas, who are really gods; of the 
bodhisattvas, who are divine saints; and of other 
gods and goddesses. 

Mahayana is also a slower way of salvation 
than Hinayana. To obtain deliverance takes sev- 
eral centuries. One should tend to become first a 
bodhisattva or future Buddha. Practically the 
system provides short cuts. 

19. Besides these, there developed in India the 


Buddhism 31 


tantrayana (Tantric Vehicle), which was at the 
same time broad and rapid. It was taught that 
every man can by meditation, spells, theurgic and 
erotic practices, realize his inmost Buddha na- 
ture. Tantrayana was fatal to Indian Buddhism. 
It has marred the ethical value of Tibetan Bud- 
dhism and of its branches. 

20. Buddhist temples were at first built of 
wood. In Burma the custom has persisted. The 
characteristic feature is a stupa (or tope, or 
dagoba) which is a cylindrical or prismatic tower 
topped by an elongated cupola. It contains either 
a relic of Buddha or a commemorative object. 
The stupa is fenced by a railing. Other temples 
were halls with aisles and an apse, containing a 
small stupa and an altar. Another class was 
represented by assembly halls for the monks, with 
cells at the side. Both classes of halls were often 
enlarged caves or even wholly dug in the rock. 

Worship is the best among the “roots of merit” 
without which no man can in a future existence 
enter into the Path. The Buddhas, the Dharma, 
and the Sangha are “fields of merit.” 

Worship consists in offerings of flowers, in lis- 
tening to the reading of the Dharma, in medita- 
tion. The mind is playful and restless like the 
monkey who jumps from branch to branch. By 
meditation it becomes “pointed,” and being, as 
it were, no longer surrounded by these branches, 
is no longer restless, but calm, gentle, full of 
benignity. 


32 The Living Religions of the World 


21. The claim that Buddhism influenced Chris- 
tianity has been made largely on the basis of un- 
classified sources. No Buddhistic influence on the 
Therapeutes and Essenes has been demonstrated. 
It is true that Josaphat, a legendary Christian 
saint, whose day falls on November 27th, is really 
the Buddha. It is true also that Mani, the founder 
of Manicheism, knew something about Buddhism 
and through him the movement of the Bogomils, 
Patarini, and Albigenses is connected with Bud- 
dhism by a tenuous thread. More important pos- 
sibly was the influence of Nestorian Christianity 
on the development of Buddha’s legend, and even 
of some aspects of Mahayana. This question is 
still open. Far more obvious is the relation of Bud- 
dhism to Theosophy. 

22. When Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Ol- 
cott founded the Theosophical Society in New 
York (1875), they apparently knew nothing of 
Buddhism. Soon they realized that there was a 
remarkable affinity between the teaching of Gau- 
tama and the intellectual aims of the new organi- 
zation. Mrs. Blavatsky’s myth of the Great White 
Brotherhood in Tibet, the story of her imaginary 
expedition there, the writing by Colonel Olcott 
of a Buddhist catechism which was approved by 
Buddhist leaders in Ceylon, Burma, Japan, and 
Mongolia, are so many ties between Theosophy 
and Buddhism. Apparently the Buddhists hoped 
that theosophical activities in India would lead 
to a renaissance of Buddhism there. Theosophical 


Buddhism 33 


literature is not especially remarkable for its ac- 
curacy, but it has kept alive among the 30,000 
adherents of the movement, and among many 
others influenced by them, a certain vague knowl- 
edge of an emasculated Buddhism, mostly imagi- 
nary, which has been called “esoteric.” There is no 
such thing of course, as esoteric Buddhism—as 
there is no such thing as the “Great White 
Brotherhood.” The real affinity between Theosophy 
and Buddhism is due to the influence of the 
Upanishads on both. 

23. More authentic is the Neo-Buddhism of Ger- 
many. Some enthusiasts claim that it has made 
half a million converts. These are oriental figures ; 
they must be divided by ten. Even then, they 
show that the agnosticism of the noble Gautama 
finds an echo in Western hearts who have lost 
faith in God. But reading with approval the words 
of Buddha, and even declaring oneself a Bud- 
dhist, does not make one a Buddhist. No one is a 
Buddhist without the Dharma and the Sangha. 
Indeed no one is a Buddhist without wearing the 
yellow robe, at least for a time. So far German 
Neo-Buddhism is only academic and sentimental. 
It has no vital relation with Buddhism as it is in 
Asia. 

24. In the lands of real Buddhism, Christian 
missions have not been very successful, except 
among tribes steeped in animism. A study of pre- 
mahayanist tendencies and of the cause of their 
development should give a point of contact. One 


34 The Living Religions of the World 


should not emphasize the similarity of Buddhism 
and Christianity. Buddhism is agnostic, pessimis- 
tic, involves no living relation with its founder. 
It treats sin as ignorance. It claims that salva- 
tion has to be earned. Its idealism is fantastic 
and disappointing. The value of the intention is 
overemphasized, while action is discouraged. The 
Tibetan lamas are real Buddhists when they pre- 
tend that to scatter in the storm bits of paper 
with printed pictures of horses is a work of merit 
as much as giving actual help to stranded travel- 
lers. Buddhism has all the defects of a cloister 
religion. It is bookish, misogynic, hairsplitting 
in its dialectic. It is uncritical, unpractical, 
softening. In many ways the coming age in Burma 
and Siam is going to parallel the period of inva- 
sions in India after Asoka. Will Buddhism tide 
over the crisis caused by the coming of competi- 
tion, industrialism, and the merciless materialism 
to which we have had to become accustomed in 
the West, although our own religion was some- 
what mangled in the process? 

25. Simultaneously with Buddhism, Jainism de- 
veloped as a protest against ceremonial and sacri- 
ficial religion. It is commonly said that Jainism 
was founded by Vahamana Mahavira. The Jains 
claim, however, that before him there were twenty- 
three great teachers. One of them called Parsva 
(pronounced Parshva), lived in the eighth cen- 
tury and would be the real founder of Jainism. 
He taught the necessity of four vows, namely, 


Buddhism 35 


not injuring life, not telling a falsehood, not steal- 
ing, possessing no property (but allowing 
clothes). Mahavira added a vow of strict chastity 
and forbade the wearing of clothes. 

26. Mahavira’s life is, like Siddartha’s, largely 
legendary. He married and had a daughter. At 
thirty he became a wandering ascetic, subduing 
all his senses. He died in 468 B. C. His followers 
were mostly Kshatriyas. He formed them in com- 
munities of monks and laity. 

27. Belief in transmigration led the Jains to 
emphasize respect for all living things, including 
vermin; to deny a supreme God to whom sacri- 
fices should be offered; to seek a way out of the 
misery of life by austerity and even self-starva- 
tion. The Jains are indifferent to the Vedas but 
they did not break with Hinduism, as thoroughly 
as the Buddhists. Jainism does not deny the real- 
ity of the soul. It attributes more importance to 
outer acts than does Buddhism. Karma is of mate- 
rial nature. Nirvana is endless blessedness reached 
by perfect faith, perfect knowledge of the Jina 
doctrine, and right conduct, without either desire 
or aversion to the world. All perfect men are di- 
vine, being characterized by “omniscience, bound- 
less vision, illimitable righteousness, infinite 
strength, perfect bliss, indestructibility, exis- 
tence without form, a body that is neither light 
nor heavy.” By accumulating merits, a man may 
be reborn as a god, and remain one, until he has 
exhausted his stock of merits. The liberated souls 


36 The Living Religions of the World 


of men who have become Jina (victorious) are 
above the gods, for they are never born again. 


28. Today the Jains, who number about 1,200- 
000, and are all found in India, are divided into 
three sects, each having about the same number 
of adherents. In the first sect, the monks wear 
white clothes; in the second, they are “sky clad.” 
This distinction may go back to a survival of 
Parsva’s teaching which led to a schism after the 
death of Mahavira. The third sect is made of 
Reformed Jains. 

Recently leaders of ita three sects of Jainism 
formed the All India Jain Association, which has 
officially declared what the spirit of Jainism 
means: 

First, Spiritual independence, that is to say in- 
dividual freedom and unlimited responsibility. 
The soul depends upon no one else for its prog- 
ress. 

Secondly, Universal brotherhood, not only with 
all men, but with all that lives. The current of 
life in the lowest living organism is said to be 
as sacred, subtle, sensitive, mighty, and eternal, 
as in Juliet, Cleopatra, Caesar, Alexander, Christ, 
Mahomet, and Lord Mahavira himself. 

Some of the Jains show extreme respect for 
animal life by sweeping the ground before they 
tread upon it, wearing a veil in order to swallow 
no insect, and even straining the water they 
drink for the same reason. Some Jains will not 


Buddhism _ 37 


even eat honey because that means robbing the 
bees. They maintain hospitals for animals, tak- 
ing however no account of the amount of suffering 
it entails when the animal should really be put 
to death by a humanitarian. 


29. Jainism reached its highest power at the 
same time as Buddhism. The growth of Neo-Brah- 
manism and of bhakti religions caused its down- 
fall. When persecuted the Jains professed Hindu- 
ism. Thus they weathered the storm, to some ex- 
tent. There is now a constant drifting of Jains 
into Hinduism, made all the easier by the fact 
that nearly all Jains employ Brahmans as domes- 
tic chaplains and even as ministers in their 
temples. Jainism is in the fetters of caste as much 
as Hinduism. The Jain community is wealthy and 
well educated but religiously in a precarious con- 
dition. Jainism is not missionary. Its day is over. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


A. 

G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter IX. 
B. 

G. F. Moore, History of Religion. I. Chapter XII. 
C. 


K. J. SAUNDERS. The Story of Buddhism. Oxford Univer- 
sity Press, 1916. 

Mrs. Ruys Davips. Buddhism, a Study of the Buddhist 
Norm. Home University Library. 

T. W. Ruys Davins. Buddhism, its History and Litera- 
ture. New York, Putnam, 1896. 

S. Stevenson. The Heart of Jainism. Oxford University 
Press. 


38 The Living Religions of the World 


Sir Epwin Arnoup. The Light of Asia. (This is a very 
beautiful poem, setting forth the latter conception 
of the life of Gautama in documents equivalent in 
historical value to the Apocryphal Gospels.) 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. Is it right to reduce sin to ignorance as Buddhism does? 

2. Is suffering the supreme evil? 

3. Is the body a sore or a shrine? 

4. What does the transformation of Buddhism after Asoka 
teach us concerning the fate of agnosticism and ethical culture 
movements ? 

5. Should life be always respected? Should you let a cobra 
free? Would you let a litter of puppies slowly starve to death, 
or drown them? Can you find parallels in other religions to this 
extreme emphasis upon one point? 


CHAPTER III 


HINDUISM 


1. Hinduism defined. 2. How to study it. 3. The great 
gods of Hinduism. 4. The avatars of Vishnu. 5. The 
Bhagavad Gita and its teaching. 6. Ramayana. 7. Tulsi 
Das. 8. Puranas. 9. The way of knowledge. 10. The way 
of Bhakti. 11. The way of action. 12. Shiva’s composite 
character. 18. Saivite thinkers and saints. 14. Sakta. 
15. Tantras. 16. Sadhus. 17. Caste. 18. Hinduism at the 
cross roads. 19. Influence of Hinduism on the Western 
world. 20. Christianity and Hinduism. 

1. Hinpvuism is what the Hindu does. It is the 
web of Indian life. Like India itself, it has no 
unity but of the spirit. Like India it is so com- 
plex that no one can know it thoroughly. Like 
the Indian mind, it refuses to lend itself to the 
categories of the Western mind and is totally in- 
different to accurate measurements and chrono- 
logical sequences. It is mythological and ritual- 
istic, philosophical and mystical, social and na- 
tional. 

2. There are for us two methods of studying 
Hinduism. The first is to study the poetical litera- 
ture of India, both Sanskrit and vernacular, both 

39 


40 The Living Religions of the World 


epic and lyric. The second is to read books describ- 
ing Hinduism as it is today, written by compe- 
tent writers. It is wise to become well grounded 
in the first class of works before attempting the 
second. Otherwise we are apt to lose ourselves in 
a mass of unconnected data without the ability 
to classify and synthetize. And yet it is essential 
to remember that religion should not only be 
studied in religious texts but also in actual 
practice. We know very well that the reading of 
the Bible, of the Pilgrim’s Progress, and of the 
Imitation of Christ, would not give an adequate 
idea of what Christianity is. 

3. Hinduism is the legitimate successor of 
Brahmanism as the latter was the continuation 
of Vedism. It may perhaps be called Neo-Brah- 
manism. It is difficult to say when Hinduism be- 
gan. At the time of Megasthenes, about 300 B. C., 
Rama and Krishna were already worshipped as 
gods. At the beginning of the second century B.C., 
they were certainly regarded as incarnations of 
Vishnu. The growth of Buddhism and its trans- 
formation, the growth of Jainism, the develop- 
ment of Upanishad doctrine, the composition of 
the Mahabharata the writing of a good deal of 
brahmanical literature, took place simultaneously. 

A Hindu is one born of Hindu parents, who 
marries a Hindu, respects the cow, practises cre- 
mation, reverences the Brahmans, and recognizes 
God in a certain form. This last statement may 
cover any form of religion from monotheism to 


Hinduism 4] 


animism and—strange to say—professed atheism. 
For practical purposes Hinduism may be said to 
include every native of India who is not Jain, 
Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, Jew, or Moslem. Hin- 
duism strongly influences, however, all these other 
religions and it may possibly in the future in- 
clude most of them, if not all, in so far as they 
are professed by the native born. As yet no Euro- 
pean may be a Hindu. The last census of India 
gave the number of Hindus as 234,000,000. The 
great gods of the Vedas and of the Brahmans 
have now been crowded out by the three hundred 
and thirty million gods of Hinduism. There is 
but one temple of Indra in India. The great gods 
of Hinduism are Vishnu in his different incarna- 
tions, and Shiva.* They go back to Vedic times, 
when Vishnu’s fame rested mainly on the three 
strides which he took as a sun god traversing the 
earth, the air, and the heaven. Shiva (Auspicious) 
is an euphemistic epithet given to the destructive 
Vedic storm-god Rudra, who was usually mal- 
evolent but also healing and beneficent. 

In the Hindu Pantheon the incomprehensible 
Brahman, the cosmic soul is manifested in a triad, 
Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva. Brahma, the Creator, mar- 
ried Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. Vishnu 
married Lakshmi or Shri, goddess of wealth. Shiva 
married Uma, also called Parvati, Durga, Kali. 





1The name of this god is written by Indianists Siva or Civa, 
which is in either case pronounced Shiva. His religion is Saiv- 
ism, to be pronounced Shaivism. 


42 The Living Religions of the World 


4, The religion of Vishnu absorbed many other 
local cults and even Indian Buddhism itself. This 
absorption was made easy by the doctrine of the 
avatars, or incarnations of the god. It became an 
article of belief that Vishnu became incarnate 
‘whensoever the Law fails and lawlessness up- 
rises ... to guard the righteous, to destroy evil 
doers, to establish the Law.” There are 24 avatars 
of Vishnu, the ten most important being the fish, 
the tortoise, the boar, the man-lion, the dwarf, 
Rama with the axe, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, 
Kalki. The first three are now interpreted by prog- 
ressive Hindu thinkers as beneficent interventions 
of Vishnu before mankind evolved out of the ani- 
mal stage. The fourth represents an age of transi- 
tion, as also the fifth. The sixth is mankind as 
brute. The seventh is civilization with the god 
Rama coming with family life, with its affections, 
its trials, and triumphs. The eighth incarnation 
with Krishna solves the problem of the warfare 
of the world. As Buddha, Vishnu was compassion 
and redemption, and incidentally his religion ab- 
sorbed the remnants of Buddhism in India. As 
Kalki, the militant God Vishnu will come in the 
future to fight evil and unrighteousness. 


5. The most influential book in India today 
is the Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Adorable Lord), 
a Vaishnava work probably written in the sec- 
ond century B. C. Reprinted editions, new trans- 
lations, and commentaries, are continually issued 
by Indian publishing firms. William von Hum- 


Hinduism 43 


boldt ealled it “the most beautiful, perhaps the 
only true philosophical song existing in any 
known tongue.” Its appeal is declared to be uni- 
versal. The Gita is about as long as the fourth 
gospel. It forms one of the cantos of the un- 
wieldy epic of the Mahabharata. Before the dread- 
ful eighteen battles between the Kurus and the 
Pandavas, where 1,660,000,000 warriors were to 
be killed and less than ten men survived, Arjuna 
hesitates before the battle, thinking that it may 
well be fatal to the caste of the Kshatriyas (war- 
riors). Krishna, who acts as his charioteer, ex- 
horts him to lay aside these doubts. Souls are with- 
out beginning and without end. It is said com- 
monly that “the Upanishads are the cows, Krish- 
na is the milker, Arjuna the calf, and the nectar- 
like Gita is the excellent milk.” The philosophi- 
cal basis of the Gita is that as the atman (or self) 
is behind the fleeting senses and the body, so is 
Brahman (or the cosmic self) behind the fleeting 
objects of the world. The two are one. 

He is within all beings—and without— 

Motionless, yet still moving, not discerned 

For subtlety of instant presence; close 

To all, to each; yet measurelessly far; 

Not manifold, and yet subsisting still 

In all which lives. 


The light of lights, he is in the heart of the dark 
Shining eternally. 


Since that changeless spirit, and not the body 


as a temporary abode, is the essential thing in 
man, so there is after all no real slaying, let Ar- 


44 The Living Religions of the World 


juna do the duty of his caste, which is to fight 
without heeding consequences. 

6. The second greatest book in India is the 
Ramayana, also a Vaishnava book although its 
original form, the work written by Valmiki in the 
fifth century B. C., was a mere epic telling of the 
conflict between Rama, rightful heir to the king- 
dom of Ayodhia (Oudh), and Ravana, chief of 
the demons, whose stronghold was Ceylon, and 
who has ravished Sita, the tender, noble, and pure 
wife of Rama. In the later form of the epic, 
Ravana is an archfiend, who, having obtained 
from Brahma the gift of being invulnerable to 
gods and demons, filled the earth with wicked- 
ness, while the gods looked on powerless. They 
begged Vishnu to be born as a man, and thus to 
do away with Ravana. After his victory he es- 
tablishes in the royal city of Ayodhia a messianic 
age. Peace reigns among men and among the ani- 
mals of the jungle, the Brahmans receiving abun- 
dant gifts. “Faith is all-powerful and a mine of 
every blessing, but men cannot attain to it except 
by the fellowship of the saints. Now there-is no 
other meritorious deed in the whole world but 
this one, to worship Brahmans in thought, word, 
and deed. ” This statement of the Ranayane is 
significant. 

7. There are many vernacular translations of 
this Sanskrit epic. The best known is the Hindu 
version of Tulsi Das, which is the Bible of a hun- 
dred million people in India. Tulsi Das lived from 


Hinduism 45 


A. D. 1532-1623, a date when Nestorian influences 
may very well have already been at work in In- 
dia. “Place the name of Rama as a jewelled lamp 
at the door of our lips and there will be light, 
as we will, both inside and out.” says Tulsi Das. 
In earlier ages salvation may have been reached 
by contemplation, sacrifice, or temple worship, 
but “in these evil days, neither good deeds, nor 
piety, nor spiritual wisdom, is of any avail but 
only the name of Rama.” 

8. The Puranas are sectarian poems giving an 
account of the origin of the world, genealogies and 
legends on the ages of the world. The word Pu- 
rana means “old” and so they can be looked upon 
as being at first “Books of origins,” a sort of 
Hindu Genesis. The earliest of these works go 
back to the fourth century A. D., but their text 
was largely interpolated by worshippers of the 
great Hindu gods, especially Vishnu and Shiva, 
so that most of the material is late. They are very 
widely read, both in Sanskrit and in numerous 
translations and adaptions. In the Vishnu we 
find the legendary life of Krishna, his mischief- 
making childhood, his amorous dealings with the 
Gopis or shepherd girls, and his love of Radha. 
Thus is Krishna, whom some call the Hindu 
Christ, unhappily connected with eroticism. It is 
true that his followers do sublimate these stories 
into mystical love, as Christian saints have done 
with the Song of Songs. The similarity stops 
there. The Song of Songs is not essential to Chris- 


46 The Living Religions of the World 


tianity. The New Testament does not quote it. The 
Krishna stories are essential to Vaishnavism. 
There is necessarily something unhealthy in a 
conception of the divinity, when a Vaishnava like 
Tulsi Das needs to write in his Ramayana: “The 
fool, who, in the pride of knowledge, presumes to 
copy the gods, saying it is the same for a man 
as for a god, shall be cast into hell for as long 
as this world lasts.” * An incarnation which brings 
not a pattern of life as well as a teaching about 
the way of life is seriously lacking in value. 


9. In Hinduism, as in Brahmanism, salvation 
means release from rebirth. In the Upanishads, 
deliverance is reached by mystic knowledge, but 
this was accessible only to the cultured. No truly 
Hindu religious system could give up this method 
but in Hindu theism we find an alternate way 
within the reach of all, that of bhakti or deyotion 
to God. Another way is the way of action, or 
Karma. To some extent these three ways are one, 
at least there is a unifying principle underlying 
them all, as a quest after the ultimate reality. 

Knowledge is mystic vision of the real. The 
Gita says: 

“There is ‘true’ Knowledge. Learn thou it is this: 


To see one changeless Life in all the Lives, 
And in the separate, One inseparable.” 


This knowledge is reached by purification, con- 
centration, meditation. In calm, stillness, and 





4 Quoted by Sydney Cave, Redemption: Hindu and Christian, 
p. 222. 


Hinduism 47 


silence the vision of the Truth comes when the 
mind, steadied like an unruffled lake, reflects the 
Wisdom from above. When Truth is thus seen, 
by a supra-sensorial knowledge, sense and self 
lose their power..: 

10. As the way of Knowledge (jnana marga) is 
the right activity of the mind, so is the Way of 
Love and Devotion (Bhakti marga) the right 
activity of the emotional life. Krishna says in 
the Gita: “This is my word of promise, that he 
who loveth Me shall not perish.” . . . “Even if 
a man of evil conduct turns to Me with a sole and 
entire love, he must be regarded as a saint”... 
“Merge thy mind in Me, be my devotee, prostrate 
thyself before Me, thou shalt come even unto Me. 
I pledge thee my troth, thou art dear to Me . 
Come unto Me alone for shelter; sorrow not, I 
will liberate thee from all sins.” 


11. The way of action (Karma marga) is right 
activity of the will. Says Krishna in the Gita: 
“There is ‘right’ Action: that which—being enjoined— 


Is wrought without attachment, passionlessly, 
For duty, not for love, nor hate, nor gain. 


“There is the ‘rightful’ doer; he who acts 
Free from self-seeking, humble, resolute, 
Steadfast, in good or evil hap the same, 
Content to do aright. 

12. For the study of Saivism, we have no such 
outstanding work as the Bhagavad Gita and the 
Ramayana. In the South of India, among the 
Tamil-speaking people, who number eighteen 


48 The Living Religions of the World 


millions, there are two collections of vernacular 
poems, the Devaram, written between 600 and 
800 A. D. by three Saivite poets, and the Tiru- 
vachakam, written probably a century or two 
later by Manikka Vasahar, who stands even 
higher as a writer of religious poetry. These can 
best be studied in Hymns of the Tamil Saivite 
Saints, by F. Kingsbury and G. E. Phillips, in 
The Heritage of India series. As soon as it be- 
comes distinct in history Shiva worship is com- 
posite and so is the character of the god. He is 
first a destructive power in nature, a god of storm 
and lightening. He is a reproductive power of na- 
ture whose symbol is the linga (phallic symbol). 
He is a typical yogi, with matted hair, whose 
naked body is smeared with ashes, whose look 
was sufficient to reduce to ashes Kama, the God 
of Love. He is a learned sage, philosopher, and 
teacher. He is a wild mountaineer fond of drink- 
ing, music, and dancing. 

138. These different aspects of Shiva, due per- 
haps to the assimilation of local gods, were subli- 
mated by the theological thought of his devotees. 
Shiva’s dance was interpreted as the source of 
all movement within the universe and the place 
of the dance was said to be in reality within the 
heart. The evil forms of Shiva were explained on 
the basis that even demons must be a portion of 
God. Shiva’s staying near the cremation-grounds 
was understood as his abiding in the heart of the 
devotee as the place where the self and his deeds 


Hinduism 49 


are burnt away. There is a beautiful legend of 

Shiva drinking a stream of black poison which 

would have killed the gods while ambrosia was 

being made for them. The poison did not take 

away his life but his throat remained dark and 

swollen. So the poet Manikka Vasahar says to 

Shiva: 

“Abusing thee or praising—crushed by sin, and grieved 
am I. 

Lo, thou’st forsaken me, thou brightness on red coral 
hill, 

Thou mad’st me thine; didst fiery poison eat, pitying 
poor souls, 

That I might thine ambrosia taste, I, meanest one.” 


Shiva has no incarnations, although he often 
appears in visible form. His worship has attracted 
some of the greatest minds in India such as Shan- 
kara, and some of its most gifted poets. Shiva 
has won their hearts. Manikka Vasagar says: 


“The ignorant say, Love and God are different; 
None know that Love and God are the same; 
When they know that Love and God are the same, 
They rest in God as Love.” 


The Saivite philosophers are usually monists. 
It is remarkable that with some exceptions Sai- 
vite lyrics are not erotic like those of Krishna. 
It is the more remarkable because of the nature 
of the symbol of Shiva and of the fact that in 
many of his temples the devadasis, the hetairae 
of India, are associated with the worship of the 
god. 


50 The Living Religions of the World 


Some of the Saints exalt bhakti above any 


other form of religion: 
“What though ye be great doctors?... 
What though the duty ye assume 
Of doling out cooked food and gifts? . . 
It boots him naught who does not feel 
The noble truth that God is love. 


“What though ye roam through lands and wilds? 
What though ye faultless penance make? 

What though ye give up eating meat 

And heav’nward look? None wins reward 

But those that praise the knowing Lord. 


“What though your views are proper, true? 
What though ye fast? Upon a hill 

What though ye make a penance great? 
What though ye bathe and show you fair? 
It boots none aught but those that feel 
That all through Time the Lord endures!” 

The religion of Shiva offers, like Vaishnavism, 
salvation to all and become often a practical 
monotheism. The god fills the horizon of the heart 
of his devotee so completely that there is room 
for no other god. Brahma fades away and Vishnu 
or Shiva, as the case may be, is the only God. 
Says Manikka Vasahar, the Saivite poet: 

“Indra or Vishnu or Brahm, 
Their divine bliss crave not I: 
I seek the love of thy saints, 
Though my house perish thereby. 
To the worst hell I will go, 
So but Thy grace be with me. 
Best of all, how could my heart 
Think of a god beside Thee?” 


1Extract of a hymn of Appar, a Saivite saint. Cf. J. N. 
Farquhar, Primer of Hinduism, p. 124. 


Hinduism 51 


“The sky, earth, wind, the light, our very flesh and life 
art Thou, 

Being art Thou, non-being too, Thou King, who see’st 
how 

Men dance like puppets with their foolish thoughts of 
‘Tl’ and ‘Mine’ 

While Thou the cords dost pull. What words can tell 
Thy praise divine?” 

14. The worship of Sakti (pronounce Shakti) 
or energy is found in connection with Shiva. The 
god is transcendent in himself and immanent by 
Sakti. The Sakti is the consort of Shiva. In 
Bengal, where Vaishnavism is the religion of one 
fourth of the Hindus, the other three fourths wor- 
ship Kali and Durga, who are both names or 
forms of Shiva’s consort. This form of religion 
is attended with animal sacrifices, licentious 
songs, and lewd dances. The worst forms of Sakta 
are the most degraded worship that has ever been. 
Not very long ago, human sacrifices were offered 
to Kali. The Thugs strangled travellers and other 
victims to her. There is associated with Sakta a 
good deal of magic. 

Saktism is usually divided into two sects, “the 
right-hand Saktas” who avoid the coarse and cruel 
forms of Kali worship, and the “left-hand Saktas” 
who meet in secret and partake of the five “real- 
ities” or elements of worship, the Sanskrit names 
of which begin with M: wine, meat, fish, parched 
grain (or finger signs), and women. 

A number of hymns to Sakti as “the Mother” 
have been translated in Thompson and Spencer, 


52 The Living Religions of the World 


Bengali Religious Lyrics, Sakta, where one can 
see the loftier aspects of this religion. Ramprasad 
Sen, one of these poets, says “What is the worth 
of salvation if it means absorption, the mixing 
of water with water? Sugar I love to eat, but I 
have no wish to become sugar.” 

This is totally different from the point of view 
of Indian philosophers but represents a side of 
Hinduism which is far more conspicuous than 
literary sources would lead us to think. 

15. The manuals describing Sakta worship and 
belief are called Tantras (webs or warps). Only 
a small part of this literature has been trans- 
lated. Besides much metaphysical speculation, the 
Tantras contain spells and whole pages of mys- 
tical syllables om, am, um. 

16. Since the days of Alexander, foreigners 
coming to India have wondered at the respect 
shown to ascetics. These are now called sadhus, 
and differ from the hermits of early India in 
that they do not give up worship. Indeed most 
of them are Vaishnava or Saivite. 

The sadhus are wandering mendicants who 
perform pilgrimages. They usually have a rosary, 
a staff, and a begging bowl, often a pipe for 
smoking hemp and other drugs. They wear some- 
times a yellow robe, sometimes rags, sometimes 
a loin cloth. They usually have a sectarian mark 
on the forehead and carry a sect symbol, a trident 
if they belong to Shiva, a discus or conch shell 
if they are followers of Vishnu. Often does a sadhu 


Hinduism 53 


lie on a bed of spikes, or he hangs head down- 
ward above a smoky fire, or wears an enormous 
weight of chains, or measures his length along 
the road for hundreds of miles. Few of these 
sadhus are scholars. Most of them are ignorant, 
many of them are coarse and immoral, no better 
than vagabonds. 

17. Caste is an essential feature of Hinduism. 
It is idealized in the Bhagavad Gita. Educated 
Hindus claim that behind the idea of caste is the 
principle of ‘Noblesse oblige,” as Krishna taught 
Arjuna. 

Modern castes of Hinduism form three groups; 
first the twice born, who alone wear the sacred 
thread, and may be educated in sacred literature. 
They are divided in three castes, Brahmans or 
priests, Kshatriyas or rulers and warriors, and 
Vaisyas or business men and farmers. In North- 
ern India these three castes are quite distinct. Un- 
der them we find a large number of lower castes. 
In the South, there are very few Kshatriyas and 
Vaisyas so that the population is composed of 
Brahmans, Sudras (the fourth caste of the old 
Brahmanical system), and Panchamas or fifth- 
caste men, who are called also outcasts and un- 
touchables. The Pariahs are a large section of 
this group. Foreigners, even though they be 
rulers, are unclean. Only the first four castes may 
enter Hindu temples. 

Caste is closely connected with belief in trans- 
migration. A man is born again into a caste or 


54 The Living Religions of the World 


subeaste according to the quality of his former 
deeds. Each member of the caste should perform 
his duty therein. As the Bhagavad Gita says 
(XVIII, 45): 

“According as each man devotes himself to his 
proper work does he obtain consummation.” | 

The chief of the rules of caste are: 

1. No man may marry outside his own caste. 
Usually also he must marry within certain sub- 
divisions. 

2. Certain foods are forbidden. Food should 
be prepared by people of determined caste or 
subcaste. 

3. No man may eat with one of lower caste. 

4. A man must follow certain occupations. 

5. None may cross the ocean. 

This fifth rule has suffered so many exceptions 
that it is now gradually falling into abeyance. 
The penalty for breaking a rule of the caste may 
be a fine or excommunication which operates 
upon the descendants of the guilty men fore- 
ever. 

18. Hindu social life shows unmistakable signs 
of impending disintegration. Its strength lay in 
the family, ancestor worship, caste, and in a 
religion which somehow combines the highest con- 
ceptions with animism, demon worship, and idola- 
try. But now India is passing through a tremen- 
dous economic and social crisis, deeper perhaps 


Hinduism 55 


than anything happening in the Western world. 
She is now at the parting of the ways. For the 
sake of the ideal of the world, to which India 
has contributed so much, we hope that she will 
follow Gandhi, that embodiment of the best in 
Hinduism, rather than a materialism imitated 
from the West. 


19. In spite of the haughty and sometimes 
unfriendly attitude of the Anglo-Saxon world 
towards Hindus, and especially towards Ben- 
galis, Hindu thought has strongly influenced 
our Western world. Theosophy is an Eura- 
sian hybrid faith reaching far through spir- 
itualistic societies. There are Vedanta mis- 
sionaries in England and America who move 
among the leisure class. They make few real 
converts, but their success is greatly magnified 
in India where stories have a knack of growing 
fast. The genius of Tagore has popularized among 
us a thoroughly Hindu conception of life, which 
would be felt more strongly, were we not living 
at a time of cursory reading and in a world of 
unretentive minds. Christian Science owes much 
to the Bhagavad Gita although quotations from 
that work have been suppressed since the publica- 
tion of the thirty-fourth edition of Science and 
Health. It is therefore quite evident that the 
study of Hinduism has for us a practical value.’ 





1J. A. Maynard, Christian Theology and ‘Hindu Religious 
Thinking. Anglican Theological Review I, 1918, pp. 184-190. 


56 The Living Religions of the World 


20. What about the influence of Christianity 
upon India and her religion? Missionaries to In- 
dia have learned to be fair to Hinduism, some- 
times perhaps more than fair. Their aim is no 
longer to destroy, but to fulfil. They see in Christ 
“The Crown of Hinduism.” The best solution of 
the problem of bringing Christianity. to the heart 
of India is given in a little book by J. C. Winslow, 
entitled Christian Yoga.’ We have much to learn 
from India. We also think that she may learn 
from us that there should be accuracy in religious 
matters, and there should be no religion without 
a lofty and practical conception of ethics. The 
history of the past tells us clearly that India 
has not made as great a contribution to these 
aspects of religion as to mystical philosophy. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
A. 
G. A. BARTON. Religions of the World. Chapter X. 
B. 
G. F, Moore. History of Religions. I, Chapters XIII-XIV. 
C. 
L. D. Barnett. The Heart of India (“Wisdom of the 
Hast” Series) London: Murray, 1913. 
J. N. FaArQuHAR. A Primer of Hinduism. Oxford Univer- 
sity Press, 1912. 
J. N. Farquuar. The Crown of Hinduism, Oxford Uni- 
versity Press, 1915. 
J. N. FarquHar. An Outline of the Religious Literature 
of India. Oxford University Press, 1920. 


2J. A. Maynard, Hinduism and the Christian Spirit. Anglican 
Theological Review, VII, 1924, pp. 32-39. 


Hinduism 57 


BE. Arnotp. The Song Celestial or Bhagavad Gita (can 
often be found second-hand). 

S. RADHAKRISHNAN, Indian Philosophy. New York: Mac- 
millan, vol. I (19238). 

S1sTER NivepitA (Margaret E. Noble) and A. K. Cooma- 
raswamy, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, Lon- 
don: Harrap, 1918 (uncritical, but gives point of 
view common in India. The obnoxious element in 
Hinduism is explained away, but that may be just 
as well.) 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. In what way can we assimilate the values found in the 
way of Bhakti? 

2. Compare the ideal of ascetic inactivity and that of service. 

3. What are the equivalents of caste found among us? Is their 
existence legitimate? ; 

4. What valuable religious element is found in idol worship? 
How can it be preserved in a less objectionable manner? 

5. What master forces do you find in Hinduism? How would 
you emphasize them in Western ways? 


CHAPTER IV 


THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA AND TIBET 


1. China, a problem for religious statistics, syncretism. 
2. Universism, Yang and Yin. Macrocosm and microcosm. 
3. The war against specters. 4. Ancestor worship. 5. Value 
of universism for morality. 6. Taoism. 7. Lao-Tze. 8. 
Taoist Priesthood. 9. Higher aspect of Taoism. 10. Con- 
fucius. 11. His life. 12. The ideal of Confucius. 13. Wor- 
ship of Heaven. 14. The five relations—Reciprocity— 
Propriety. 15. Mencius. 16. Educational system. 17. An 
estimate of Confucianism—Contact with Christianity. 
18. Buddhism. 19. The making of a bodhisattva. 20. 
Canon. 21. Polytheism. 22. Chinese Buddhism in Amer- 
ica. 23. Islam in China. 24. The outlook for Christianity 
in China. 25. Lamaism. 26. Bon. 


1. THE REAL RELIGION of China is universism. 
It is the first religion of the Chinese race. It de- 
veloped under the influence of a strong conser- 
vatism, and even Buddhism had to bow to it in 
a nearly abject fashion. It is often said that Con- 
fucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are the three 
religions of China. A curious situation arises 
however when it comes to religious statistics. The 
population of China is about four hundred mil- 
lions. They should not be divided among the three 


58 


The Religions of China and Tibet 59 


systems since they belong to each of the three in 
some way and really to a fourth one. Thus China 
may be said, from one point of view, to contain 
four hundred million Buddhists and that makes 
Buddhism the religion of five hundred million 
people on the face of the earth. Or, from another 
point of view, China contains four hundred mil- 
lion Confucianists and nearly as many Taoists. 

The Chinese are a remarkable race, but we ob- 
ject to their being counted three times. As a 
matter of fact, Confucianism is really limited 
to the literary class, although it provides the 
ethical and social leaven of China. The priests 
of Buddhism are the only real Buddhists. The 
statistical problem of Taoism is still more dif- 
ficult. It is nearer to the basic religion of China 
than Chinese Buddhism, but in a way the Taoist 
priests are the only real Taoists. All the Chinese 
revere Confucius. All the Chinese, except the 
Christians, worship occasionally in Buddhist 
temples, and make use of the Taoist priests. The 
Emperor was the high priest of the State religion 
and yet he had in his own palaces Buddhist and 
Taoist shrines. 

The Chinese have no word for religion. Of the 
two words used, the first denotes rites and 
customs, the second means teaching. Pidgin Eng- 
lish (pidgin means business) is the dialect spoken 
by the lower class of Chinese who come into con- 
tact with Europeans. In this language God is 
called Joss, a corruption of the Portuguese Deos. 


60 The Living Religions of the World 


Hence the term Joss-house for temples, Joss 
pidgin for ceremonies, Joss paper for gilt and 
silver paper placed in them, Joss stick for incense 
stick. The superficial psychology of these terms 
shows that Chinese religion is easily misunder- 
stood by a stranger. 

Chinese politeness is not absent from religion. 
“Sacrifice,” says the “Record of Rites,” “should 
not be frequently repeated, for such frequency is 
indicative of importunateness, and importunate- 
ness is inconsistent with reverence. Nor should 
they be at distant intervals, for such infrequency 
is indicative of indifference.” 

Thus prayer avoids direct petition, which 
would seem to be degrading to the worshipper 
and embarrassing to the god. On the other hand, 
religion admits of the noisiest and the crudest 
performances for the driving away of evil spirits. 

2. De Groot, who is the foremost authority on 
the religion of China, says that it was from the 
very first based on “an implicit belief in the 
animation of the universe and of every being or 
thing which exists in it.” He called this form of 
religion “Universism,” a shorter term than uni- 
versalistic animism. Its basis is that there are 
two opposite cosmic souls (or breaths), the Yang 
and the Yin.’ Yang is light, warmth, life, heaven. 
Yin is darkness, cold, death, earth. They are both 





1As a mnemotechnic way of remembering which is which, I 
usually say to students that a comes before i, and light is pre- 
ferred to darkness. 


The Religions of China and Tibet 61 


divided in an indefinite number of spirits. The 
good spirits (shen) from Yang, the specters 
(Kwet) from Yin. 

The Tao is the cosmic order, “the way of the 
road of the Yin and the Yang.” To this Tao of 
the world there answers, as the microcosm to the 
macrocosm, a Tao of man. Happiness comes from 
the harmony of both. 

The cosmic Tao has two parts, or souls, the 
T’ien Tao (or Tao of Heaven), and the 7’ tao 
(or Tao of Earth). “Man,” says the classic book 
Li-ki, “is a product of the beneficial operation 
of Heaven and Harth, or of the copulation of 
the Yin and Yang, and the union of a Kwei with 
a shen.” Death is a division. Not only man but 
every animal, plant, object, has a double soul. 

The only god of the Chinese is the Ti’en Tao. 
It is an anonymous, cosmic god. 

3. The world is crowded with spirits, good and 
bad. The spirits animating the sun, the moon, 
the stars, the wind, the rain, the clouds, fire, 
the earth, the sea, the mountains, the rivers, the 
rocks are gods, as are also souls of deceased 
great men. The aim of popular religion is to in- 
duce the gods to defend man against the specters. 
There is a science of magic which renders demons 
harmless. It is based on analogy. For instance, 
it is a well known fact that the specters are 
strong at night, but flee the light of day. No 
doubt the crowing of the cock heralding the day 
is a signal for their departure. Hence the use of 


62 The Living Religions of the World 


the blood of a cock, if a man suddenly swoons 
because a devil has seized him. Hence also the use 
of earthenware roosters on top of houses, and | 
of images of cocks on New Year’s day. Similarly 
the triumphal progress of Yang in the spring 
happens at the time of the blossoming of peach 
trees. Hence the use of red paper to drive away 
specters. 

Another method of fighting specters is with 
fire crackers and incense, with drums, cymbals, 
gongs, and horns. The making of noise is a meri- 
torious work. 

Since all that is normal, correct, and proper 
responds to the cosmic Tao, it neutralizes the 
power of specters and drives them away. Hence 
the value of classical writings, the anti-spectral 
influence of the litterati. A page of a classic, and 
especially of the almanac, the red ink-pencil used 
by a mandarin, the impression of his seal, are 
powerful defences against specters. The classics 
are the best lullabies for restless babies. Reciting 
them in the darkness gives courage and secures 
safety. No wonder that the demons howled with 
dismay when writing was discovered! 

4, The worship of ancestors leads to elaborate 
and costly funerals, with the sacrifice of paper 
silver, paper slaves, paper concubines. Special 
attention is paid to coffins and vaults. Corpses, 
coffins, and graves when prepared according to 
rule, become seats of Yang-stuff and provide 
amulets. When a specter makes a baby cry at 


The Religions of China and Tibet 63 


night, burning a piece of some old coffin next 
to the baby will pacify him. Coffin wood makes 
good musical instruments, doubly efficacious 
against the specters. 

This aspect of universism makes for morality. 
Ghosts pursue murderers or even a bad judge. 
One takes better care of the aged and of the 
dying for fear of their revenge after death. 
The founding of a family is clearly the duty 
of every man so that his soul will be catered to. 
A man will be afraid to drive another to suicide 
for fear of having a terrible enemy in the world 
of specters. 

6. Taoism is universism systematized. It in- 
cludes all that Confucianism disliked. It is closely 
connected with magic, medicine, and geomancy. It 
permeates Chinese art, poetry, folklore, and the 
drama. It has a mystic philosophy, most difficult 
to understand. 

7. The personality of Lao-Tze (born in 604 
B. C.), the “Old Master,” commonly regarded as 
the founder of Taoism, is partly legendary. He 
was probably an imperial archivist, a profession 
which would tend to make a man conservative, 
even if the genius of race were not so. How far the 
teaching of Lao-Tze is a restatement of ideas 
already expressed in China is an open question. 
He probably knew some form of Upanishad teach- 
ing. The naturalistic pantheism of Tao may per- 
haps be derived fram the monistic pantheism of 
the Upanishads, Lao-Tze wrote a small book, the 


64 The Living Religions of the World 


Tao Teh King (the Classic of the Way and of 
Virtue). “To know and yet (think) that we do 
not know is the highest (attainment),” writes. 
the sage; “not to know (and yet think) we do 
know is a disease ... He who overcomes men 
has force; he who overcomes himself is strong; 
he who knows he has enough is rich.” Lao Tze 
emphasizes freedom from desire. Violent action 
is futile. The sage is indifferent. He only grasps 
“the one,” which is Tao, the universal principle 
of being. Morality is conformity to the Tao. This 
point of view explains why Taoism developed 
into a quest after magical powers. 

8. There is a Taoist pope called “Master of 
Heaven,” whose dignity is hereditary, and a 
priesthood both celibate and married. Their chief 
work is exorcism. 

Buddhism strongly influenced Taoism, which 
borrowed from it the belief in transmigration. 
Lao-Tze himself was deified and forms a triad 
with Pan-ku (the Great Beginning or Demiurge) 
and the “Jewelled Sovereign Lord.” 

9. In spite of its polydemonistic features 
Taoism may be more congenial to Christianity 
than Confucianism. It certainly is more religious. 
For instance, Chuang-tze (circa 330 B.C.) writes: 
“Human knowledge is limited, and yet by going 
on to what he does not know, man comes to know, 
what is meant by Heaven or God. He knows 
Him as the Great Mystery; he knows Him as the 
Great Illuminator; he knows Him as the Great 


The Religions of China and Tibet 65 


Equitable; he knows Him as the Great Infinite; 
he knows Him as the Great Hope; he knows Him 
as the Great Destiny—this is ultimate knowl- 
edge. The Great Unity is everywhere ... The 
ultimate end is God. By conformity comes enlight- 
enment. He is the revolving center. He is the be- 
ginning . . . From of old comprehension of the 
Law (Tao) must be preceded by the comprehen- 
sion of Heaven or of God.” It has been main- 
tained that the Tao may well be understood as 
the Logos.’ 

10. Kung-Foo-Tze (Kung the Master), whose 
name was latinized by the Jesuit missionaries 
into Confucius, was not a religious reformer. He 
was partly a skeptic, certainly a man who mis- 
trusted his ‘imagination. He claimed to be “a 
transmitter and not a maker, believing in and 
loving the ancients.” His interest lay in rules 
of conduct and in the preservation of the state. 

11. He was born in 551 B.C. in the province 
of Shantung. He became a teacher, and later, for 
a time, a government official, becoming a teacher 
again because his sovereign did not live up his 
ideal of a ruler. He died a poor man in 478 B.C. 

12. The ideal of Confucius was study of the 
past. He said: “I was not born a man of knowl- 
edge; I am naturally only quick to search out 
the truth, from a love for the wisdom of the 





2G. Reid, A Ohristian’s Appreciation of Other Faiths, p. 38. 
The second chapter of this work is the most sympathetic study 
of Taoism that we know. 


66 The Living Religions of the World 


ancients ... I am not presumptuous enough to 
set up for a wise and benevolent man. It can be 
said of me, however, that I am not weary in 
well doing, and that I am untiring in teaching 
others ... I have gone all day without food 
and all night without sleep in order to think. 
I find it unprofitable, however, and look upon 
study as preferable.” 

Confucius avoided conversation on the super- 
natural. “We cannot as yet,” said he, “perform 
our duties to men; how can we perform our duties 
to spirit? . . . We know not as yet about life; 
how can we know about death?” He believes 
that all men should worship the spirits of their 
ancestors, but going beyond their circle was flat- 
tery. Prayers consisted in a virtuous conduct. 
“My prayers,” said he, “were offered long ago.” 

13. The Emperor alone should worship Heaven. 
The Altar to Heaven is a beautiful structure of 
white marble in the open air, surrounded by a 
large park. There the Emperor performed a simple 
and beautiful service on the morning of the win- 
ter solstice. The Altar to Earth is built of dark 
colored marble, also in the open, surrounded by 
another park. There the Emperor worshipped 
in the morning of the summer solstice both for 
himself and as the representative of the people. 
He was called Son of Heaven and worshipped. 
as such. With the proclamation of the republic 
in 1911 came the end of this phase of Confucian- 
ism. Yuan Shi Kai tried to reéstablish the Im- 


The Religions of China and Tibet 67 


perial rites but his attempt was only an usur- 
pation and it failed. Today the Altar of Heaven 
in the sacred palace is not only disused but 
sadly in need of repair. 

14. According to Confucius, man’s nature is 
good. All that is needed is a right understand- 
ing of social relations and of the rules of pro- 
priety. There are five natural relations, namely, 
of sovereign and subject, husband and wife, 
parent and child, elder and younger brothers, 
friend and friend. The three mainstays of society 
are the subservience of wife to husband, child 
to parent, subject to sovereign. “A noble-minded 
man has four rules to regulate his conduct: to 
serve his parents in such a manner as is required 
of a son; to ‘serve his sovereign in such a manner 
as is required of a subject; to serve his elder 
brother in such a manner as is required of a 
younger brother; to set the example of dealing 
with his friends in such a manner as is required 
of friends.” Ethics is summarized in reciprocity. 
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not 
do to others.” Another basic principle is propri- 
ety. From that there is no appeal. 

15. Mencius (871-288 B.C.) developed the 
speculative element of Confucianism. He empha- 
sized the natural goodness of man and his inborn 
sense of propriety. He had even less interest in 
religion than Confucius. 

16. The old educational system of China was 
Confucianist to the core. It granted official po- 


68 The Living Religions of the World 


sitions after competitive examinations. It brought 
about the formation of a class of litterati who 
ruled the country, and whose very existence was 
an element of cohesion and stability. The high 
regard of Confucius for a golden age in the past 
explains why knowledge of the ancient classics 
was the content of education and the test of real 
achievement. 

17. The value of Confucianism lies in its suit- 
ability to Chinese ideals, in its moral code, in 
its full recognition of the power of law. Its weak- 
ness lies in the fact that it makes man the center . 
of the Universe and ignores God, the spiritual 
needs of man and progress. His system leaves out 
the power of the ideal; it does not satisfy the 
eternal quest of man for the motive of virtue. 
Christianity has much to give to the Chinese if 
it accepts, as it may very well do, Confucianism 
as a lasting contribution to the development of 
the world. Western customs are not better than 
Chinese customs and should not be presented 
as such. Indeed they are, as we know very well, 
no part of Christianity. Moreover it is well to 
remember that the Chinese are quite convinced 
that the Westerners are only nouveaux riches in 
the realm of learning and culture. 

Confucianism is not tolerant. It may cease to 
persecute Buddhism and tolerate Islam because 
Buddhists and Moslems make no scruple to offer 
secrifices to the ancestors, and because, even in 
the case of the latter, religious propaganda is not 


The Religions of China and Tibet 69 


conspicuous and does not disrupt family relations. 
Christianity has been persecuted in the past 
largely because converts have refused to worship 
the ancestors, to perform the elaborate rites of 
mourning, and have thus disregarded the most 
elementary rules of filial piety. One questions 
whether missionaries have acted wisely when they 
appealed to consuls, ambassadors, and the argu- 
ment of foreign guns, to protect their converts 
for breaking laws that are fundamental to Chi- 
nese society. 

18. Universism also permeates Chinese Bud- 
dhism, which is now nineteen centuries old. In the 
third year of his reign, A. D. 61, the Chinese 
Emperor Ming-ti is said to have had a dream in 
which he saw a golden figure with a halo flying 
from heaven and hovering over his palace. One 
of his ministers told him of a divine person wor- 
shipped in India and called Buddha. An embassy 
was sent to India and returned in A. D. 67 with 
books, relics, and two monks. In 71 A. D. a Bud- 
dhist temple was built. Since then Buddhism has 
at times been persecuted and at other periods has 
prospered. Chinese Buddhism formed many sects 
of Mahayana, some based on Indian sects, some 
purely Chinese. Hinayana literature was also in- 
troduced, but never became popular. 

The great principle of Mahayana, the order of 
the world of Dharma, was identified with the 
Tao. Dharma manifests itself by the universal 
light emitted by an infinite number of Buddhas. 


70 The Living Religions of the World 


To be a monk is to be a consistent Buddhist. 
Only, in China the monks do not beg. Whenever 
it is necessary, the abbot of a Buddhist monastery 
sends several brethren to collect for the commu- 
nity. The begging bowl is only an ordination sym- 
bol. 

19. The process of becoming a Buddha is by a 
series of monastic ordinations. The first stage in 
salvation is becoming a deva or saint; Literally 
the word means god. It is reached by men who 
enter the sangha, promise to keep the ten com- 
mandments of Buddhism, and receive the tonsure 
and the garment of poverty. A day or two later, 
they are admitted to the order of mendicants, 
each candidate receiving an alms-dish. They 
promise to obey the two hundred and fifty monas- 
tic rules of life. That makes them arhats. After a 
day or two more, they confess their sins, per- 
form an ablution, put on new clothes, and swear 
to obey the fifty-eight commandments of the 
Mahayana contained in the Sutra of the Net of 
Brahma. They recite a long litany, calling on the 
names of three hundred buddhas, prostrating 
themselves at each name. Then the other monks 
stick over the shaven heads of the ordinands a 
number of bits of charcoal. These are lighted by 
the ordaining monks so that they burn into the 
scalp. Thus does one become a bodhisattva. 

The seventh month of the year is devoted to 
propitiary readings for the departed. The laity 
can be promoted to the dignity of bodhisattva 


The Religions of China and Tibet 71 


after their death if the sacred Buddhist books 
are read by the monks, in the presence of the 
corpse, every seventh day up to seven times seven. 
The beneficent influence claimed by Buddhism on 
the welfare of the dead is what saved it in China. 

20. The high value set upon the sutras or sa- 
cred books for that purpose explains why they 
increased so that the Buddhist Canon translated 
into Chinese is exceedingly bulky. One set was 
sent to England by the Japanese government in 
1874. It filled seven boxes. The books would fill 
110 feet of shelves. Their number is about two 
thousand. 

The location of the monasteries or of pagodas 
is often due to geomancy (fung-shui). Their pres- 
ence on the mountains, together with the sacred 
reading of the monks and their magic practices, 
guarantees a regular rainfall. In these temples 
are found many statues of buddhas and bodhi- 
sattvas. Chinese Buddhism emphasizes not only 
the hope of a blissful heaven but also the fear of 
the most gruesome hells, providing for the gen- 
erously minded a way to escape from these. 

21. Chinese Buddhism is polytheistic. The prin- 
cipal gods are Kwanyin, ‘‘she who hears the cries 
of men,” and her father Amida (a corrupt form 
of the Sanskrit Amitabha, “the boundless light’), 
the divine Lord of Western Paradise. There are 
also statues of Sakyamuni or Sakya (the name 
Gautama is not used in Mahayana) and of Mait- 
reya, the Buddha to come. Worship is performed 


72 The Living Religions of the World 


with incense, the offering of flowers and cakes, 
the chanting of litanies and sacred texts, the repe-. 
tition of short invocations and of mystic vowels 
on the rosary. 

Confucianists were hostile to Buddhism because 
they thought the practice of celibacy anti-patriotic 
and sinful, the building of monasteries and pa- 
godas a mere waste of money, teaching about 
heavenly bliss absurd gossip, the doctrine of re- 
wards and punishments after death an infringe- 
ment of the Rights of the Son of Heaven and of 
the Mandarins. This led to fierce persecutions of 
Buddhism and to its decay in China, in spite of 
the remarkable spirit of adaptation of that re- 
ligion, and of its assimilation of a whole pantheon 
and pandemonium taken from Chinese univers- 
ism. 

22. Chinese Buddhism in America has been 
also declining, especially since the establishment 
of the republic. At the time of the San Francisco 
earthquake (1906) there were nearly 100 places 
of worship. Nearly half of these were destroyed 
and only a few were rebuilt. No list of members 
is kept. No sermon is preached. The worshipper 
prays privately before one of the shrines. He offers 
incense sticks, which must be in number one or 
three, or a multiple of three; two red candles, 
and some sacrificial papers. On special occasions 
wine is offered in tiny cups in rows of three, six, 
or nine, with as many chopsticks between the 


The Religions of China and Tibet 73 


cups. Steamed chicken or roast pig is offered at 
the same time. The worshipper usually wants to 
consult the gods on a certain course of action. 
He makes his request, bowing to the floor. The 
answer is given by lot with pieces of bamboo or 
of wood. Three gods chiefly are worshipped, 
namely Kuan-Ti, the God of War and upright- 
ness, a deified general who lived circa 200 A. D., 
the God of Fortune, and Kwan-yin, the Goddess 
of mercy. 

The Joss houses are usually in close connection 
with the Tong associations. Needless to say, 
Americans of European race are uninfluenced by 
them religiously. In 1907 a Confucian society was 
organized in Chinatown, New York. It holds 
weekly services which are fairly well attended. 
Hymns praising Confucius are sung and sermons 
based on his teaching are preached. The aim of 
the society is to emphasize the religious aspect 
of Confucianism as representing a national ideal. 

23. It is very difficult to estimate the number of 
Moslems in China proper. It is probably eight 
millions. There are about two million more in 
Chinese Turkestan. They are mostly converts or 
the descendants of converts. Prohibition of pork, 
alcohol, and opium is uncongenial to the Chinese. 
Moslems keep very much to themselves. Their 
usual zeal for the faith shows itself in buying 
children of the poor, who are educated as Mos- 
lems. There is no open propaganda of Islam. In 


74 The Living Religions of the World 


dress, in language, and in most of their customs, 
the Moslems are scarcely different from the other 
Chinese. 

24, Christian missions in China have had a 
chequered career. Terrible persecutions of the 
Roman Catholic missions took place in the past. 
Protestant missions suffered much during the 
Boxer rebellion. Christianity is making a large 
number of converts now so that there are in 
China about three million Christians, two-thirds 
of these at least being Roman Catholics. There 
is a good deal of opposition both among the 
Chinese educated in Western ways and among 
the ignorant, who resent the ways of the “foreign 
devils.” The Chinese care little for imported de- 
nominationalism. A truly national Chinese Church 
has a great future because there is no fear that 
the Chinese will ever neglect the ethical aspect 
of religion. 

25. The official religion of Tibet is well named 
“Jamaism” because of the lamas (monks, priests), 
who keep the laity in subjection. The latter are 
characteristically called “the givers of alms.” 
Lama means “unsurpassed.” The chief ruler is 
the Grand Lama, who is looked upon as a Living 
Buddha. During the last century the monks were 
said to number one third of the population. This 
proportion is probably not so high today. Tibetan 
Buddhism is of the Mahayana type. 

26. It is strongly mixed with Tantric features 
which came over from India with Buddhism it- 


The Religions of China and Tibet 75 


self. Besides, Bon, the old religion of Tibet, still 
lives in shamanistie practices, devil dancing, and 
other demonologist features. Today, Bon is the 
main religion of about two-thirds of the Tibetans, 
including most of the agricultural people. The 
nomads and the city-dwellers of Central and West- 
ern Tibet are more faithful to Buddhism. Even 
there prayers are mostly addressed to devils. 

The Tibetans are famous for their mechanical 
development of prayer. There are all kinds of 
prayer wheels, even many automatic ones. 

A famous Sanskrit spell constantly repeated 
is Om mani padme Hum (Om! the jewel in the 
lotus, Hum), which gains entrance into the Para- 
dise of Amitabha, by securing the favor of the 
god of Mercy, “clad with eyes,” who regulates 
transmigration. Bon priests say the formula 
backwards. 

Tibet is a forbidden land to Europeans. There 
are very few Christians in the country. They have 
been severely persecuted. They are found only in 
Bon sections of Tibet. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


A. 

G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter XI. 
B. 

G. F. Moore. History of Religions, I, Chapters I-IV. 
C. 


J. J. N. De Groot. The Religion of the Chinese. New 
York: Macmillan, 1910. 


76 The Living Religions of the World 


J.J. N. DE Groot. Religion in China, Universism a Key to 
the Study of Taoism and Confucianism. New York:. 
Putnam, 1912. 

W. E. Sootuitit. The Three Religions of China. Oxford 
University Press, 1924. 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. Would it be a good policy to allow Christians to acknowl- 
edge Confucianism ? 

2. What will be the effect of the economic and social changes 
taking place in China on the five relations? 

3. What should be our attitude towards ancestor-worship ? 

4. Is it right to apply extra-territoriality to persecuted 
Chinese Christians? 

5. Do you think that Chinese classics could be used for pub- 
lic reading in Christian worship, instead of, or together with, 
the Old Testament? 


CHAPTER V 


THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 


1. Japanese syncretism. Tolerance. 2. Shinto. 3. Its 
mythology. 4. Its pantheon. 5. Shrines. 6. Worship. 7. 
Priesthood. 8. Ancestor worship. 9. Butsudo. Coming of 
Buddhism and Chinese culture. 10. The renaissance of 
Shinto. 11. Character of Japanese Buddhism. 12. Secta- 
rianism. 18. Pure Land sects—Jodo—Shin. 14. Holy way 
sects—Nichiren. 15. Temples—Worship. 16. Canon. 17. 
Bushido. 18. Buddhist Mission to America. 19. Chris- 
tianity in Japan. 


1. THH RELIGIONS or JAPAN form today a syn- 
cretism which has been fifteen centuries in the 
making. Its two main elements are Shinto, or the 
way of the gods, and Butsudo, or the way of 
Buddha, who is called Butso by the Japanese. 
To these must be added Confucianism in its Ja- 
panese form. 

Shintoism and Buddhism have not a common 
organization, and their rituals, which are very 
different, are performed in separate temples. 
Indeed some Japanese will claim to belong to 
either of these religions, but most of them be- 
long to both, and most certainly all of them have 


77 


78 The Living Religions of the World 


beliefs which pertain to both. There is, of course, 
a large element among the educated classes which 
declares itself agnostic and, doing away with re- 
ligion, would teach ethics on the basis of Neo- 
Confucianism. Another important group would 
build up an idealistic religion of science. 

The common religious syncretism of the Japa- 
nese is made possible by the accommodating char- 
acter of the two religions of Japan. In them, we 
do not find the idea of a Church as a definite body 
of believers of which one becomes a part by pro- 
fession of faith or through the medium of a cer- 
tain sacrament. The public exercise of religion 
consists in attendance at certain ceremonies, 
which may be performed, either at a buddhist or 
a shintoist sanctuary. The average person does 
not care to investigate which divinity has a home 
in it. 

The great educator Fukuzawa, whose works 
have reached a circulation of eight million copies, 
even declares that the difference between relig- 
ions, like Buddhism and Christianity as that be- 
tween green tea and black tea. He was in favor of 
adopting Christianity as the religion of Japan. 
It would of course be a bitter pill, he admitted, 
and it would be unwise to chew it before swallow- 
ing it. Again, he said that religion is like cloth- 
ing that one puts on and off. One should be 
eclectic and tolerant. Attending a Christian ser- 
vice is like shaking hands, or offering your arm 
to a lady, or dancing. All these are equally ab- 


The Religions of Japan 79 


surd, but are done for the sake of courtesy and 
adaptation. | 

This attitude of the majority of thoughtful ed- 
ucated Japanese is found also in the words of 
Kunitake Kume: “In what religion, then, do I 
believe? I cannot answer that question directly. 
I turn to the shinto priest in case of public festi- 
vals, while the Buddhist priest is my ministrant 
for funeral services. I regulate my conduct ac- 
cording to Confucian maxims and Christian mor- 
als. I care little for external forms, and doubt 
whether there are any essential differences, in 
the eyes of the Deity, between any of the relig- 
ions of the civilized world.” 

2. Shinto is the old religion of Japan, and yet 
its very name is Chinese, and was given to it 
only after the introduction of Buddhism, and to 
distinguish it from the latter. “The way of the 
Gods” is called in Japanese Kami no michi, but 
this name was not used until later. 

3. The mythology which is so intimately con- 
nected with Shinto is found in two histories of 
old Japan, the Kojiki and the Nihongi, written in 
the eighth century A. D., at a time when Chinese 
influence was already at work. Indeed the second 
is written in Chinese, and the first in a mingled 
Chinese and archaic Japanese with a Chinese 
preface. 

The cosmogony explains by the courtship and 
marriage of Izanagi-no-Kami (the Deity male who 
invites) and Izanami-no-Kami (the Deity Female 


80 The Living Religions of the World 


who invites) the birth of islands, and of gods 
who are forces of nature, seasons, wind, sea, rain, 
food, and fire. The birth of the Fire Prince causes 
the death of his mother Izanami. The father killed 
the child, and his blood and body gave rise to 
more nature deities. Izanami went to the under- 
world where Izanagi pursued her and saw her 
putrified body giving birth to the eight thunder 
gods. Izanagi escaped this horrible place. When 
he purified himself, he gave birth to other divini- 
ties. 

4, Shinto was in its early form the worship of 
nature-forces. The development of its nationalist 
aspect is modern, but it goes back to early mythol- 
ogy, where the ancestor of the Japanese dynasty 
is shown to be a grandson of the sun-goddess. 
This element of Shintoism is what saved it from 
complete absorbtion into Buddhism. It was too 
valuable a theory of divine right to be put aside, 
when Buddhism conquered Japan. 

The gods of Shinto are called Kami, a term 
which really means “high, exalted” and is also 
applied to demons. The gods form two main 
groups, deified nature powers and deified men. 
The Sun goddess is the queen of Heaven; she 
rules the gods. Next to her is the god of the 
Earth. The fox-god Inari was originally the god 
of rice and cultivation. He is represented as an 
old man riding a white fox. The foxes of his great 
temple near Kyoto are greatly respected. 

Deified heroes form the second class of Kami. 


The Religions of Japan . 81 


Among these are found the Mikados. An Ameri- 
can who had discovered coal mines in Japan, and 
who died a few years ago in Philadelphia, was 
officially made a Kami, even before his death, as 
a token of gratefulness. 

The number of the gods is commonly said to 
be eight millions. 

5. All foreigners visiting Japan are struck by 
the beautiful gateways (torii) with delicately 
curved lines which mark the approach of sanctu- 
aries. The word means “bird-perch,” and the torii 
may have been originally a roost for cocks, who 
heralded the sunrise. The little shrines on the 
domestic godshelf also have a diminutive torii. 

Shinto shrines are very small and built in the 
primitive way of old Japan. The roof is thatched 
or shingled, never tiled. The wood is not painted. 
The worshipper approaches the front room, but 
does not enter, in order to call the attention of 
the god to his prayers, he rings the bell or strikes 
the gong, and claps his hands with reverence. He 
also deposits an offering in the money-box. The 
small room in the back is a holy place which is 
entered only by the priests. There the sacred sym- 
bols are kept. There is no preaching and no con- 
gregational worship. In the court, there is a laver 
for ablutions, and often a stage for sacred panto- 
mimes and dances. 

There are more than fifty-eight thousand of 
these shrines. Only one of these has the three 
symbols of the gods, the mirror, the sword, and 


82 The Living Religions of the World 


the crystal. All the others have the mirror only. 
Its meaning is found in the words of the Sun- 
goddess: “Look upon this mirror as my spirit, 
keep it in the same house and on the same floor 
with yourself, and worship it as though you were 
worshipping my actual presence.” Others say that 
the mirror represents the human heart, which re- 
flects the very image of Kami, when it is clear 
and clean. 

There is no Shintoist creed, no theology. A 
leading priest has said, “If shinto has a dogma, 
it is purity.” Dr. Griffis says “Mikadoism is the 
heart of Shinto.” An important aspect and value 
of Shinto is its connection with craftsmanship. 
The making of a sword was a religious act; each 
blade was made with prayer. Such was the case 
generally in the art of Japan which the whole 
world admires, and which owes so much to Shinto 
and its sensibility to the divine in nature. 

6. The daily ritual is very simple. It consists 
in simple offerings of food and drink made morn- 
ing and evening. At festivals more food is offered 
with silk and other presents. There is also music 
and dancing. There is a good deal of mirth with- 
out boisterousness. Very important are the puri- 
fication ceremonies which take place twice a year. 

7. The priests follow other occupations as well. 
Their dignity is hereditary. They wear an old 
form of court dress when officiating. The high 
priesthood of the Mikado is an essential part of 
his office. He is called “Incarnate Kami,” but it 


The Religions of Japan 83 


must be remembered that kami does not exactly 
mean God. 

8. In his book on Ancestor worship, Professor 
Hozumi says: “We firmly believe that our ances- 
tors, other than their bodies, do not die. They are 
immortal. The spirits of the fathers and mothers 
who loved their children still live in the other 
world and watch over their descendants.” Shin- 
toist ancestor-worship was strongly influenced 
by Chinese religion. By the virtue of certain Shin- 
toist prayers, the soul of the departed partly 
dwells in the tablet of the ancestors where their 
names are written. This tablet is kept in a white 
wooden box called the “house of souls.” Before it 
are offered daily rice, sake (rice wine), cakes, 
fruit, and flowers. Photographs are sometimes 
used now instead of tablets. 

Responsible persons in the Japanese govern- 
ment have often declared that Shinto is not a re- 
ligion. Their aim has been to make it possible for 
every Japanese, whether Christian or Buddhist, 
to be a Shintoist as well, namely to be loyal to 
the Mikado. Even the worship of the Emperor’s 
picture is now Officially called only “reverential 
salutation.” It is quite evident that Shintoism 
cannot be missionary. 

9. Butsudo, the way of the Buddhas, is Japan- 
ese Buddhism. In 552 A. D., a petty king of South- 
west Korea made an effort to form an alliance 
with the Mikado. At that time the Chinese owned 
a good deal of northern Korea and the Japanese 


84 The Living Religions of the World 


had a foothold in the South. The Korean King 
sent to the Emperor of Japan, a golden statue 
of Buddha, several sacred books, and other pres- 
ents, and, naturally, some priests. With these 
went a letter praising the Buddhist religion and 
setting forth its evident destiny to travel con- 
stantly eastward. At the Mikado’s court there was 
at once a strong opposition to the foreign relig- 
ion. The chief minister, Soga no Iname, being al- 
ready well disposed towards the religion of the 
West, it was finally decided that he would be al- 
lowed to turn his house into a temple. To Soga’s 
house the statue was therefore taken. The coming 
of a plague of smallpox was taken as a sign of 
displeasure of the gods of the land. Therefore the 
temple was destroyed and the statue cast into a 
canal. Then a flash of lightning from a cloudless 
sky set fire to the Imperial Palace, a manifest 
sign of Buddha’s anger, and permission to re- 
build the temple was given and the statue was 
fished out of the canal and duly set in the new 
sanctuary. 

A civil war which followed saw the growth of 
the power of the house of Soga, which raised to 
the throne the empress Suiko Tenno (593-628 
A. D.) with the prince Shotoku Taishi as regent 
and heir apparent. Until then, there had been very 
few converts, but now, under the protection of 
Shotoku, Buddhism became the court religion. 
Shotoku was learned in Chinese philosophy and 
literature as well as in Buddhist doctrine. He 


The Religions of Japan 85 


sent a number of Japanese students to China to 
study these as well as the science of government. 

The progress of Buddhism was at first suffi- 
ciently slow to be a healthy growth. After Shoto- 
ku’s death (621 A. D.) there were 46 temples with 
nearly 1,400 monks and nuns. Shotoku was made 
a Buddhist god. 

The returned students took to heart the work 
of the reformation. In 645, great reforms were 
enacted and the change was as rapid as, and 
more thorough than, that which has taken place 
in Japan within the last two generations. A 
centralized government was established, with a 
legal system, a code in the Chinese language, a 
census, taxes, a bureaucracy. 

Thus with Buddhism came a whole civilization, 
Chinese writing and literature, arts and laws, 
architecture, sculpture, painting, and the art of 
casting bronze. The only thing that could not be 
imported was the state religion of China for ob- 
vious reasons. 

Shintoism was not sufficiently organized. Its 
simple beauty akin to poverty faded before the 
pomposity of the new religion, with its philosophy, 
its ethics, its ritual, its hierarchy, and its orders. 
Moreover Buddhism was a very adaptable sys- 
tem. There was found at once room for the gods 
of shinto into the manifold incarnations of 
Buddha. Buddhist and Shinto ceremonies were 
combined, and that was all to the advantage of 
the former, because most of the clergy of Shinto 


86 The Living Religions of the World 


were Buddhist, except in a few sanctuaries such 
as Ise and Izuno. | 

10. Only its mythology, so closely connected 
with the ruling families of Japan and with na- 
tional origins, kept Shinto alive until there was, 
circa 1700, a Renaissance of Shinto connected 
with a nationalist and literary revival. The best 
known of the leaders of this movement were 
Motoori (1730-1801) and his disciple Hirata 
(1775-1841)..The champions of the creed of old 
Japan studied the old manuscripts and imitated 
their language. They extolled the power of the 
Mikado, who had only the shadow of power un- 
der the Shogun, until the revolution of 1868 rein- 
stated the Mikado as a real Emperor. From the 
Shintoist temples they removed and destroyed 
Buddhist sanctuaries and sacred ornaments. 
The Buddhist temple were often given to the 
revived religion. Even Buddhist influences on Jap- 
anese art were under the ban. 

11. Buddhism is not being persecuted any more 
and it is even claimed that all the Japanese (ex- 
cept the Christians, who are still few in number) 
are Buddhists. Japanese Buddhism belongs to 
the Mahayana type, but has been thoroughly 
modified to meet Japanese requirements espe- 
cially in the teaching of the sects who have arisen 
since the twelfth century. The Japanese are not 
a pessimistic people and therefore did not really 
grasp the doctrine of karma and of redemption 
as Buddha proclaimed it. 


The Religions of Japan 87 


The historical Buddha is rather unimportant. 
Far more important is the celestial and ideal 
Buddha called Amida (Amitabha), and among 
the Bodhisattvas, the goddess of mercy, Kwannon. 
There is a multitude of lesser gods and demons, 
including gods of Shinto. Belief in a real trans- 
migrating soul is common. 

138. Japanese Buddhism forms a large number 
of sects. There are fifty-eight of them, plus thir- 
teen combined with Shinto. This, with the twelve 
pure Shinto sects and the many denominations of 
Christians, makes Japan a country of religious 
sectarianism. Were it not for the character of the 
Japanese people, it would create a serious con- 
dition. 

The sects of Buddhism form two groups. In 
the “Pure Land” sects, which were called by six- 
teenth century Jesuit missionaries a kind of Bud- 
dhist Lutheranism, man is saved by divine grace. 
In the “Holy Way” sects, he is saved by his own 
strength. 

14. There are three “Pure Land” sects of Bud- 
dhism namely Jodo, Shin, and Ji. They teach that 
those who have directed their thought to be born 
in the wonderful Buddha country of the West, 
even though they have repeated the thought only 
ten times, shall obtain their desire. In that won- 
derful land, free from hindrances, they develop 
into Buddhahood. The Jodo sect teaches salvation 
by faith. Whosoever calls upon the name of Amida 
shall.be saved. It is meet therefore to repeat con- 


88 The Living Religions of the World 


stantly Namu Amida Butsu, Adoration to Amida 
Buddha. Jodo does not reject Kwannon and other 
Buddhas. Some even say that the repetition of 
the formula given above without faith brings sal- 
vation. 

The Shin sect (the True sect) is very similar 
to Jodo. It rejects the worship of any god save 
Amida. It teaches that asceticism is not necessary 
to salvation. It rejects also vegetarianism. Priests 
may marry and need not live in monasteries. They 
preach sermons and have a beautiful ritual. The 
clergy wear their priestly garb only when engaged 
in a religious function. Shin has no deep meta- 
physic. Its priests find it easy to accept the re- 
sults of modern science. Shin, like Jodo, offers 
salvation to the layman. There are ten branches of 
the Shin sect. The Shin sect has reached mostly 
the humbler class of Japanese, but it has taught 
them to be generous to the Church, and it main- 
tains missions to China and Korea. 

15. More orthodox Mahayana Buddhism is 
found in the sects of the Holy Way (or Pure 
Path). They emphasize contemplation and meta- 
physical knowledge. The Zen sect prescribes post- 
ures and methods of meditation, sitting motion- 
less, thinking of not thinking. In most “Pure 
Path” sects, salvation is only for monks. All that 
the layman can hope is for a chance to be reborn 
as one. 

The Nichiren (lotus of the sun) sect, so-called 
after the name of its founder, is a reactionary 


The Religions of Japan 89 


and intolerant “Holy Way” sect. Those who serve 
Amida, said Nichiren, belong to hell, the disciples 
of Zen are devils. The preaching of Nichiren led 
to religious wars with Shin. For hours the faith- 
ful, accompanied by a drum, recite Veneration to 
the Sutra of the mysterious Law of the lotus 
flower. This book is a manifestation of Buddha. 
There are many gods. Images are worshipped, 
including, naturally, the statue of the founder as 
an incarnation of Buddha. 

16. There are 71,750 Buddhist temples, far 
larger and more gorgeous than the shinto shrines. 
In some of these the services are very beautiful. 
The vestments of the priests, the pictures and 
images, the clouds of incense veiling the altar, 
the intoned service, seem to be an Eastern adap- 
tation of Roman or Greek Catholic ceremonial. 
Worship is theoretically congregational in so far 
that the faithful may attend. There are 181,100 
Buddhist priests. 

17. The sacred books, even the Tripitaka, have 
never been translated into Japanese. They remain 
in Chinese which only the educated can read at 
all. The canon is very bulky (6771 volumes). Each 
sect emphasizes certain parts of it. It is some- 
times placed on a revolving book case. By making 
the book case turn, one is supposed to have ac- 
quired as much merit as by reading it. Such an 
idea is perfectly logical in Buddhism. 

18. Bushido has been truly called the Soul of 
Japan. It means literally Fighting—Knight— 


90 The Living Religions of the World 


ways, that is, to say the Precepts of Chivalry. 
The sources of Bushido were several. Buddhism 
gave to it a quiet submission to Fate. From Shinto 
came loyalty to the ruler, love of country, and 
reverence for the ancestors. Confucianism gave 
to Bushido the five moral relations. The books of 
Confucius and Mencius were studied by the sam- 
urai until they were assimilated in mind and 
character. The Bushido as an ethical code empha- 
sized rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, 
truthfulness, honor, loyalty, self-control. The 
Bushido ideal of woman was domestic and ama- 
zonian as well. Revenge and in some cases suicide 
(harakiri) were the duties of the samurai. The 
Japanese compare Bushido to the ideal of the 
gentleman which has done so much to form the 
character of Britishers. 

19. There has been an attempt to make Bud- 
dhism known to Americans. In 1899, a mission 
was established in San Francisco by members of 
the Shin sect. Several Americans were admitted 
into the Church. A few more were only interested. 
The movement has remained exotic so far as 
Americans of European descent are concerned. 
More successful has been the shepherding of Ja- 
panese residents in America. In 1916 there were 
eleven Japanese Buddhist temples and one shinto 
shrine in the United States. They declared 5,639 
members. There is a bishop at San Francisco 
with twenty ministers under him. In the Ha- 
waiian islands, we find another bishop, 54 minis- 


The Religions of Japan 91 


ters, and 35 temples. Regular services are held 
usually on Sunday afternoons. There are day 
schools and Sunday schools and Young Men’s 
Buddhist Associations. 

20. Since 1889, conversion of a Japanese to 
Christianity is no longer a criminal offense as 
it became after the terrible persecution which 
destroyed the Jesuit missions in the seventeenth 
century. More liberty and more consideration is 
granted to Christianity in Japan than in many 
European countries. 

In 1920, among the 49 million and a half of 
Japanese (not including Korea, Formosa, and the 
other dependencies), there were 230,000 Chris- 
tians, 115,250 being Protestants, 79,000 Roman 
Catholics, and about 36,000 Greek Orthodox. The 
progress of Christianity is relatively slow. There 
is a good number of well educated Japanese min- 
isters. The Anglican Church of Japan, which has 
now 17,000 Church members, is developing a 
native episcopate. The Greek Orthodox mission 
has been depending on a native priesthood from 
the very first and has been very successful. 

The way of approach for Christianity would 
seem to be through the teaching of the “Pure 
Land” sects, although the influence of Christian- 
ity on the development of these sects is as yet 
unproved. 

The immediate disappearance of the veneration 
of the Japanese for the ancestors of the Mikado 
and for their own ancestors is not a thing to be 


92 The Living Religions of the World 


desired. It would disrupt the whole social fabric 
of Japan. The Japanese do not like to hear un- 
sympathetic remarks on their form of patriotism. 

Bushido should not be condemned. It has done 
too much for Japan in the past. It will, of course, 
evolve. It need not disappear. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


A. 
G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter XII. 


B. 
G. F. Moors. History of Religion. I, Chapters VI-VII. 


C. 


G. W. Knox. The Development of Religion in Japan, 
New York: Putnam, 1907. 

Tasuku HaArapDA. The Faith of Japan. New York: Mac- 
millan, 1914. 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of religious 
syncretism ? How does Japan illustrate them? 

2. Would you justify the Japanese point of view on ancestor 
worship? 

8. To what extent could Christianity be able to accept a 
modified Shinto? Would it be different from the position of the 
Church in regard to patriotism and nationalism among us? 

4. What should be our attitude towards the Buddhist sects 
more especially of the ‘“‘Pure Land’? 

5. What can we do to remove misunderstandings between 
the Anglo-Saxon and the Japanese? What can our religion teach 
us in this problem of international and interracial relations? 


CHAPTER VI 


JUDAISM 


1. Extension of Judaism. 2. Ashkenazim and Sephar- 
dim. 8. Sabbath. 4. Synagogue service. Ministry. 5. Char- 
acter of the prayers. 6. The Eighteen Benedictions. 7. 
Passover. 8. New Year. 9. Day of Atonement. 10. Juda- 
ism as a racial religion. 11. Shema. 12. Reform Juda- 
ism. 18. Creeds and Judaism. The thirteen articles of 
Maimonides. 14. Shorter creeds. 15. Canon. 16. Talmud. 
17. Education of children. 18. Marriage. 19. Prayer for 
the dead. 20. Mixed marriages. 21. Zionism. 22. Christian 
attitude towards Judaism. 


1. Ir 1s HARD to tell when Judaism began. It 
cannot be identified with the exilic religion of 
Israel although we may rightly claim that the 
synthesis of the various elements which are found 
in Judaism was the result of the Exile. This first 
stage of Judaism belongs properly to the ancient 
religion of Israel and as such remains ouside 
of the limits of this work. 

There are about 14,000,000 Jews in the world 
today, 3,300,000 of these being in the United 
States; half of this number in the state of New 
York. 

Judaism is commonly misunderstood. Relig- 


93 


94 The Living Religions of the World 


iously, it is a thorough-going ritualistic system 
exceedingly complex. It is a lay religion for a 
nation of priests. It has also social, national, and 
racial aspects. 

2. From the point of view of ritual use, the 
Jews are classified as Ashkenazim (German and 
Russian Jews) and Sephardim (formerly Spanish 
and Portuguese, now North African and Near 
East Jews). There are very few Sephardic Jews 
in America. 

Racially the Jews do not show a uniform physi- 
cal type. They have no common language. Hebrew 
is now being revived as a spoken tongue in the 
Jewish settlements of Palestine. The average Jew 
in America does not know Hebrew better than 
the average Roman Catholic knows Latin. Ash- 
kenazim Jews speak a German dialect called 
Yiddish, written in Hebrew characters. Sephar- 
dim Jews commonly use Spanish, Arabic, or Per- 
sian, written also in Hebrew letters. It is a re- 
markable fact that in countries where Jews are 
assimilating a foreign culture to the detriment of 
the old time religion, as in America, France, or 
Italy, there is no literature in English, French, 
or Italian using Hebrew characters. 

3. The Jews reckon the days from sunset to 
sunset. The seventh day of the week is the sab- 
bath, which begins on Friday at nightfall. Sab- 
bath is a day of joy and of complete rest from 
labor; the Mishnah enumerates thirty-nine classes 
of prohibited work. The prohibition of lighting a 


Judaism 95 


fire is a conspicuous feature of Sabbath obser- 
vance. Many ways were found to make Sabbath 
regulations less irksome, one of them being the 
employment of non-Jews. However, such may not 
be strictly used unless the work they perform for 
a Jew, be supposedly not done for themselves. 

4, The Sabbath is sanctified by attending ser- 
vices at the synagogue. Each synagogue is an in- 
dependent organization essentially democratic, 
as there is no real, active priesthood in Judaism. 
The minister of the synagogue is a layman. Cer- 
tain parts of the service belong by right to the 
descendants of priests and levites provided they 
have preserved their lineage unsullied. These 
priests and levites are now engaged in secular oc- 
cupations. Rabbis are learned laymen. Their pres- 
ence it not necessary at a service, even on a Sab- 
bath day, when the minister, or Hazzan, whose 
principal merit is the quality of his singing voice, 
is far more important than the rabbi. The latter 
is primarily an authority on practical questions 
bearing on law and ritual, and on purity of food. 

All services of the orthodox are conducted in 
Hebrew and Aramaic. They are very long and 
often are conducted with a great deal of speed. 
The psalms form the groundwork of the service. 
The reading of the scripture lessons occupies a 
central part in the service. The scroll of the Law 
is taken from the “ark” (a kind of tabernacle) 
and carried processionally through the synagogue 
with great solemnity. It is a great honor to be 


96 The Living Religions of the World 


asked to read—or rather to make an attempt to 
read—the lessons. 

In orthodox synagogues the whole Pentateuch 
is read yearly on Sabbath mornings and many 
other sections of the prophets and holy writings 
which form the rest of the Old Testament. 

5. Prayers and readings are cantillated or 
chanted. There is very little preaching and only 
on special occasions, 

The following is one of the oldest prayers of 
the Liturgy, which is said at an-early part of 
the service. The later accretions to the perk are 
given between parentheses: 


“With abounding love (Ahavo Rabo), hast Thou loved 
us, O Lord our God; with great and exceeding compas- 
sion hast Thou taken compassion on us. Our Father, our 
King (for the sake of Thy great Name), for the sake 
of our fathers who trusted in Thee, and whom Thou 
taughtest the statutes of life (that they might perform 
Thy will with their whole heart), be also gracious unto 
us. (Our Father, merciful Father, compassionate, have 
merey upon us. Place in our hearts intelligence that we 
may understand, consider, hearken, learn, teach, keep, 
perform, and accomplish with love all the words of Thy 
Law.) Enlighten our eyes in Thy Law. Make our hearts 
cleave to Thy commandments. Unite our hearts to love 
and fear Thy Name, that we be not confounded (or put 
to shame, and that we stumble not for ever and ever). 
For we trust in Thy holy Name (great, mighty, and aw- 
ful). We rejoice and exult in Thy salvation. (May not 
Thy mercies and Thy great loving kindness abandon 
us for ever and ever. Hasten and bring us blessing and 
peace from the four corners of the whole earth. Lead 
us securely to our Land.) For Thou art the God who 
workest salvation, and Thou hast chosen us from all 


Judaism 97 


peoples and tongues, and Thou hast brought us (O our 
King), nigh unto Thy great Name in Love, to praise 
Thee, to proclaim Thy Unity, and to love Thy Name. 
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hast chosen Thy people 
Israel in Love.” 


This prayer presents the characteristics of most 
of the prayers in the liturgical services. 

6. Benedictions form a conspicuous part of 
Jewish ritual both public and private. We shall 
give the text of the eighteen blessings as they 
were used in the first century. There are now 
nineteen, because of the addition of a twelfth 
one, which is not so ancient. The text used today 
is longer, owing to accretions. * 


THE EIGHTEEN BENEDICTIONS (Shemoneh Esreh) 
(Blessings of Praise) 

“1. (Patriarchs.) Blessed be Thou, O Lord, God of 
Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, the 
Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth, our 
Shield and the Shield of our fathers; blessed be 
Thou, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. 

“2. (Powers, or Resurrection of the dead.) Thou art 
mighty, living for ever, nourishing the living, 
quickening the dead. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, 
who quickenest the dead. 

“3. (Sanctification of the Name.) Thou art holy and 
Thy Name is dreadful, and there is no God be- 
sides Thee. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the holy 
God. 

(Petitions) 

“4, Mercifully grant us knowledge of Thee, our Father, 
understanding and insight of Thy Law. Blessed 
be Thou, O Lord, who grantest knowledge. 


1 We give the “Highteen” as they are found in P. Fiebig, Jesu 
Bergpredigt p. 51, where the early Palestinian text is given. 


98 


Seyi 


6 


Fa 


tte 


“9, 


“10. 


yl B 


La 


“13. 


“14. 


“15. 


The Living Religions of the World 


Lead us back, O Lord, to Thee, that we may return 
(or repent). Renew our days, as of old. Blessed 
be Thou, O Lord, who takest pleasure in repen- 
tance. 

Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned against 
Thee. Wipe our transgressions away from Thine 
eyes. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who forgivest 
abundantly. 

Look upon our affliction, take our side in our con- © 
flict, and redeem us for Thy Name’s sake. Blessed 
be Thou, O Lord, Redeemer of Israel. 

Heal us, O Lord our God, from the afflictions of our 
hearts. Cause to rise up a healing for our wounds. 
Blessed be Thou, who healest the sick of Thy 
people Israel. 

Bless for us, O Lord our God, this year, and satisfy 
the world with the treasures of Thy bounty. 
Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who blessest the years. 

Blow the great trumpet for our liberation, and lift 
a standard to gather our exiles. Blessed be Thou, 
O Lord, who gathered the dispersed of Thy peo- 
ple Israel. 

Restore our judges as in former days and our 
counsellors as in the beginning. Blessed be Thou, 
O Lord, who lovest righteousness. 

To the slanderers may there be no hope. May the 
Kingdom of haughtiness speedily perish. Blessed 
be Thou, O Lord, who humblest the haughty. 

Upon the righteous proselytes may Thy mercies 
be stirred. Bestow upon us a good reward with 
those who do Thy will. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, 
reliance of the righteous. 

Have mercy, O Lord our God, upon Jerusalem Thy 
city and upon Zion the dwelling place of Thy 
Glory. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, God of David, 
who buildest Jerusalem. 

The sprout of David Thy servant speedily cause 
Thou to sprout up. Uplift our horn through 


Judaism 99 


Thy salvation. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who 
causest the horn of salvation to sprout up. 

“16. Hearken, O Lord our God, to the voice of our sup- 
plication, for Thou art a merciful and compas- 
Sionate God. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who 
hearest prayer. 


(Thanks) 


“17. (Service.) Be pleased, O Lord our God, to dwell 
in Zion, and may Thy servants serve Thee in 
Jerusalem. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, whom we 
serve in fear. 

“18. (Thanksgiving.) We thank Thee, O Lord our God, 
for all the blessings, the kindness Thou hast 
shown to us. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, whom it 
is good to praise. 

“19. (Blessing of the priests.) Bestow Thy peace on 
Israel Thy people and bless us all together. 
Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who makest peace.” 


Many congregations do not use the twelfth 
benediction. Often several benedictions are com- 
bined. The group of intermediate benedictions 
(4-16) may be abridged in a few lines (Habi- 
nenu). 

The prayer books are now usually printed with 
the Hebrew (or Aramaic) and the translation 
on opposite pages. These translations are often 
very free. A rationalizing tendency has evidently 
been at work and the vigor of the Hebrew prayers 
has not always been preserved. 

Public services cannot be begun without a 
minimum attendance of ten men. A boy above 
thirteen is reckoned as a man. Women are not 
counted to form this quorum. Indeed in another 


100 The Living Religions of the World 


series of benedictions formerly used at public 
service by all the orthodox congregations, we 
find the following sentences: 

Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, 
who hast not made me a Goy (heathen, Gentile). 

Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, King of the World, 
who hast not made me a slave. 

Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, King of the World, 
who hast not made me a woman. 

For the women the end of this blessing is said in 
this form: “‘who hast made me according to Thy will.” 

7. The year has twelve or thirteen lunar 
months. The Passover is celebrated in the middle 
of the month of Nisan (March-April). Although 
the festival is duly commemorated in synagogue 
services, it is emphatically a family affair, and 
has had a remarkable influence in preserving the 
spiritual beauty of Hebrew home life. This family 
service is called Seder by the Ashkenazim. Un- 
leavened cakes, water cress, and horse radish, 
representing the bitter herbs, are eaten. There is 
also on the table parsley and a bowl of salt water 
to represent the hyssop and blood of the First 
Passover, and a mixture of nuts and apples to 
imitate the clay which had to be made into bricks. 
A roasted bone represents the paschal lamb, which 
is not eaten since the destruction of the Temple. 
This meal is the occasion of a kind of catechetical 
teaching on the meaning of the rite with a young 
child asking the set questions. Wine is on the 
table with a cup or glass for each member of the 
family and an extra glass for the prophet Elijah. 


Judaism 101 


8. The two great Jewish holidays are New 
Year’s Day and the Day of Atonement. New 
Year’s Day (Rosh hashshanah) commemorates 
the creation of the world. It is celebrated on the 
first and second days of Tishri (September- 
October). It is also the annual day of Judgment 
when Satan accuses men. God opens the Book of 
Records and fixes who shall live and who shall 
die. Hence the New Year’s salutation, ‘“Mayest 
thou be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for a 
happy year.” An important feature of the day’s 
services is the blowing of the shofar (usually 
translated trumpet), which really represents a 
horn. The ten days between New Year’s Day and 
the Day of Atonement are penitential days. 

9. The tenth of Tishri is the Day of Atonement 
(Yom Kippur) when a final account is taken and 
fates are sealed. On the eve of the day of Atone- 
ment the cantor chants the well known prayer 
Kol mdre, set to a marvellously plaintive melody. 
This is the translation of it: 

“All vows (Kol nidre), obligations, oaths, and anathe- 
mas, whether called konam, konas, or by any other 
name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby 
we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the 
next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. 
May they be deemed made of none effect; they shall not 
bind us nor have power over us. The vows shall not be 


reckoned vows; the obligations shall not be obligatory; 
nor the oaths be oaths.” 


In the nineteenth century this prayer was ex- 
punged from the prayer book of many Hebrew 


102 The Living Religions of the World 


congregations. Its character may easily be mis- 
understood, unless one understands its historical 
setting and remembers all that Jews have had 
to suffer in the way of unjust treatment and per- 
secution. On the Day of Atonement itself (Yom 
Kippur) the services are continuous. Very few 
Jews fail to attend. Services are held not only in 
synagogues but in theaters and halls. The ritual 
is very impressive. It consists of confessions of 
sins and prayers for forgiveness. Many of these 
are set to beautiful ancient tunes. The day is one 
of strict fast. ( 

10. Judaism is a racial religion. “The Jewish 
people,” says K. Kohler, “stand in the same rela- 
tion to Judaism as the body to the soul.”* This 
relation makes it very difficult for non-Jews to 
understand certain features of Judaism. For in- 
stance a Jew may be breaking all the precepts of 
the Torah, apparently profess the most complete 
unbelief, and yet remain a Jew, unless he joins 
some other religious body. 

11. The creed of Judaism is most nobly ex- 
pressed in these words: “Hear, O Israel; The 
Lord is our God, the Lord is One” (Deut. 6, 4). 
The word “hear” is in Hebrew Shema. Hence this 
sentence with the words that follow it is called 
the Shema. There is a wonderful legend about the 
noble Rabbi Akiba. As he was being tortured by 
the Romans, the death of a martyr came to him 
at the time of the Shema and, as he said it, dwell- 


1 Jewish Theology, p. 7. 


Judaism 103 


ing on the word “One,” his soul was taken to God. 
This creed is the glory of Israel, and the religious 
treasure he gave to the world. It is well that it 
be repeated frequently at public services. 

12, There are in Judaism two tendencies, the 
first expressing the spirit of legalistic national- 
ism, strongly emphasized in orthodox Judaism, 
the second that of prophetic universalism, which 
is clearly set forth by Reform Judaism, but has 
ever been to some extent maintained by the 
leaders of Jewish thought. 

In America, Jews are sometimes classified as 
orthodox or reformed. Owing to the undogmatic 
character of Judaism, the distinction cannot al- 
ways be made easily. There are only two hundred 
congregations of the “Reform” type in America, 
but their rabbis are often men of great influence 
outside of their group. The practices of a large 
number of non-Reform congregations scarcely 
savor of orthodoxy in the eyes of Jews of Galicia 
and Lithuania. In England and France, Judaism 
is generally conservative. In Germany, both types 
are found. Indeed the Reform Movement began 
in Germany and has been most successful among 
American Jews of German origin. 

The difficulty of defining the line of cleavage 
between orthodoxy and “Reform” is due largely 
to the fact that congregations are independent 
and autonomous. 

The reformed Jews are less bound than the 
orthodox to ritualistic observances. The services 


104 The Living Religions of the World 


are largely, sometimes almost entirely, in Eng- 
lish, and are very similar to Protestant services, 
with preaching taking the central part. In all re- 
formed Temples, men and women sit together, 
while in strict orthodox synagogues the women 
must sit in a separate room or gallery. A num- 
ber of Reform congregations worship on Sunday. 
In Reform congregations, the rabbi is a preacher 
and minister in the Protestant sense of the word. 
Organs were used at first only by Reform congre- 
gations. There was a great deal of opposition 
among the orthodox, because playing any musical 
instruments was forbidden on the Sabbath, and 
also because music is not proper, when the thought 
of the destruction of Jerusalem should be upper- 
most. It was also realized that it was an inva- 
sion of Christian customs into Judaism. Now the 
organ is used even in many non-Reform congre- 
gations. In Reform congregations men do not 
keep their hats on during the services, neither do 
they wear the tallith or prayer-stole. 

Not only in Reform Judaism, but among a 
growing number of Jews, there is a disregard of 
dietary laws. However there is a large number 
of Kosher shops selling meat of “pure” animals, 
slaughtered according to Jewish methods. In 
America, the custom of shaving the beard and the 
side locks is almost universal and Jewish women 
no longer commonly hide their hair under a wig. 

13. Creeds, as such, are foreign to the spirit of 
Judaism. Because of controversy with Christian- 


Judaism 105 


ity, and especially with Islam, creeds were evolved. 
The most famous was written by Maimonides 
(1135-1204) which is found in many Hebrew 
prayer books. 


(The Creator and His Attributes) 


“1. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed 
be His Name, is the Guide and Creator of all 
creatures; and He alone was, is, and will be the 
Maker of everything. 

“2. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed 
be His Name, is One; that there is no Unity like 
unto Him in any way; and that He alone was, is, 
and will be our God. 

“3. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed 
be His Name, is Incorporeal, that He has not 
any corporeal qualities, and that nothing can be 
compared unto Him. 

“4. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed 
be His Name, was the first and will be the last. 

“5. I believe with perfect faith, that to the Creator, 
blessed be His Name, to Him alone it is proper 
to pray, and there is none besides Him to whom 
it is proper to pray. 


(Revelation ) 


“6. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of 
the prophets are true. 

“7, I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of our 
Teacher Moses, peace be with him, was the truth, 
and that he was the father (i. e. chief) of the 
wise men, both of those before him and those 
after him. 

“8. I believe with perfect faith that all the Torah (or 
Law) which is found at present in our hands, is 
that which was given unto our Teacher Moses, 
peace be with him. 


106 The Living Religions of the World 


“9. I believe with perfect faith that this Law will not 
be changed and neither will there be any other 
law from the Creator, blessed be His Name. 

(God’s Providence and Justice) 


“10. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed 
be His Name, knoweth all the deeds of the sons 
of men and all their thoughts, as it is said, He 
who hath formed their hearts altogether, He 
knoweth all their deeds. 

“11. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed 
be His Name, rewards those who keep His com- 
mandments, and punishes those who transgress 
His commandments. 

(The Messiah) 


“12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the 
Messiah, and although He tarries, I wait never- 
theless every day till He comes. 

(Future Life) 


“13. I believe with perfect faith that there will be a 
resurrection of the dead, at the time when it 
will please the Creator, blessed be His Name, and 
exalted be His remembrance for ever and ever. 
Amen. 


14. Joseph Albo in his Book of Foundations 
written in 1425 reduced the Hebrew creed to 
three articles bearing respectively— 

1. on the essence of the Name (i. e. of God); 

2. on the Torah of Moses which came from 
heaven, 

3. on rewards and punishments (of human 
actions). 

American Reform Judaism shows a clear ten- 
dency to reject belief in the resurrection and to 


Judaism 107 


replace it by belief in the immortality of the soul. 

15. The Holy Scriptures of the Jews are called 
by Christians the Old Testament. The Torah (or 
Pentateuch) is ascribed to Moses by the conser- 
vative. It is really the only canonical collection, 
in the strict sense of the term. In a broader sense, 
the prophets and the Hagiographa are also canon- 
ical. 

Orthodox Jews—with the exception of the 
Karaites—are so strongly influenced by their tal- 
mudie point of view in their understanding of 
the Holy Scriptures that it is rightly claimed by 
Christians that the Talmud has crowded the Bible 
out. However, the Christian accusation of “legal- 
ism” often aimed at Jewish theology is not al- 
together fair and is much resented. 

16. The Talmud (Teaching) is a bulky collec- 
tion of legal and ritualistic matter, preserved at 
first orally. It is composed of the Mishnah (Repe- 
tition) explaining the Torah in detail, the oldest 
element, and of the Gemara (learning). It is us- 
ually printed with a medieval rabbinical com- 
mentary (Rashi) and additions (Tosafot). The 
study of the Talmud is in great honor among the 
strictly orthodox Jews. It consists in commit- 
ting the books to memory. American conditions 
do not allow Jewish children to become talmud- 
ists and, moreover, a talmudic scholar is far from 
being so highly regarded among American Jews 
as he is in eastern Europe. 

In certain Hebrew communities, particularly 


108 The Living Religions of the World 


the Sephardim of North Africa and the Hasidim 
(or Jewish pietists) of eastern Europe, cabalistic 
science, especially as it is embodied in a medieval 
book called the Zohar, competes with the Talmud 
as a religious study. 

17. Circumcision, performed at the age of eight 
days, marks the entrance of a child into the Jew- 
ish fold. It is no longer practised by all the 
Jews. The Reform rabbis do not enforce it upon 
adult converts to Judaism. Very early the relig- 
ious education of the child begins in great se- 
riousness and thoroughness, except of course 
when American conditions are allowed to inter- 
fere. On the first Sabbath after he has reached 
the age of fourteen, the boy is called upon to read 
one of the Scripture lessons for the day (about 
a chapter) or at least the benediction before 
and after the reading. He is then a Bar Mizwah 
(son of the commandment) and it is incumbent 
upon him to fulfil all the religious duties of a 
man. Reform congregations substitute for this 
ceremony an annual confirmation service on the 
Day of Pentecost. 

The intellectual achievements of the Jews are 
well known. They are not due to a superior racial 
ability—which remains to be proved—but to the 
fact that Jews appreciate the value of education 
and of intellectual achievements, more than any 
other racial group. 

18. Marriage is a duty for all. Celibacy is a 
sin. Divorces are apparently less common than 


Judaism 109 


among Christians although theoretically easier. 
The purpose of marriage is the procreation of 
children. 

19. Prayer for the dead is a duty of the orphan. 
It is an Aramaic prayer called Kaddish, which at 
first had nothing to do with the departed, as can 
be seen by its translation: 


“Magnified and sanctified be His great Name through- 
out the world that He hath created according to His 
Will. His kingdom come in your life time and within 
your days and within the days of all the house of Israel, 
speedily and at a near time. And say ye Amen. Blessed, 
and praised, and glorified, and exalted, and extolled, 
and honored, and magnified, and lauded, be His Holy 
Name. Blessed be He, though He be far above all bene- 
dictions and hymns, praises and consolations, that are 
uttered throughout the world. And say ye, Amen.” 


The Kaddish is used frequently and on many 
occasions. | 

20. Marriage with non-Jews is distinctly dis- 
couraged by the rabbis, who never officiate at 
such a marriage. These unions do of course take 
place quite often now, and the result is almost 
invariably that the children will not be brought 
up in Judaism. 

21. It has already been noticed that Judaism 
is closely connected with the hope of the resto- 
ration of Palestine as the Jewish homeland. The 
desire of orthodox Jews has ever been to die in 
the Holy land. This wish led even to the growth 
of the practice of placing with the body of the 
dead, who did not have the privilege of being 


110 The Living Religions of the World 


buried in Palestine, a little tool similar to a fork, 
so that the departed could dig his way under the 
earth and creep through until he should emerge 
into the Holy Land of Israel, for Jerusalem is 
the only city where the dead shall blossom forth 
like grass. 

More recently this hope has taken the form 
of Zionism, a movement fostering the return of 
Israel to the home-land. The Zionist colonists 
of today are not generally orthodox, and have 
little religion, if any. The movement has created 
a great deal of apprehension among Syrian Ar- 
abs, who form nine tenths of the population of 
Palestine. Jewish capitalism in America and 
Europe so generously supports philanthropical 
enterprises, that naturally it backs up Zionism 
with immense resources. One seventh of the cul- 
tivable land of Palestine has already been bought 
from native owners. The situation is fraught with 
many dangers, racial, economical, and religious. 

22. It seems quite evident that orthodox Ju- 
daism cannot survive American conditions. Re- 
form Judaism is the only system which can pre- 
serve religion among Jews. All Christians should 
wish it success, not only because some of the Re- 
form rabbis are a real power for righteousness in 
our midst, but because, if Reform Judaism fails 
to hold the allegiance of the Jewish community to 
some measure of its ancestral religion, America 
will have to face a tremendous problem. No Chris- 
tian should therefore attack Judaism, more espe- 


Judaism 111 


cially if he remembers that Christ and all the 
Apostles belonged to Israel. Anti-semitism, which 
is a misnomer for Anti-Judaism, is unworthy of 
real Christianity. If there is a certain clannishness 
among Jews, they are not the only group showing 
such a spirit. If assumption of superiority made 
by a Jew grates upon others, they must remember 
that no race is guiltless on that account. If 
Christians practise the Sermon on the Mount, 
which is Judaism sublimated, Jewish clannish- 
ness will thaw out. If we acknowledge the dignity 
of Judaism as a religion, we shall hear less often 
the unfounded statement made by Jewish preach- 
ers that Christianity compromised with faith 
in the Divine Unity. If we do not emphasize 
segregation there will be less said about a “Jew- 
ish race,” which is a figment of the imagination 
and a “Jewish nationality” which is incompatible 
with the modern idea of undivided loyalty to 
one’s country. 

Jews are learning to forgive us for the evil 
done their race in the past in the name of the 
Church. Many Jewish leaders are proud of the 
fact that their race produced “the most fasci- 
nating figure in history ... combining what is 
best and most mysterious and most enchanting 
in Israel.” Jewish scholars have removed from 
editions of the Talmud several passages which 
PES ees Enelow, A Jewish View of Jesus, New York, Macmillan, 
1920. This is an excellent book, which should be in every Ameri- 


can public library, doing its silent work in removing misun- 
derstandings. 


12 The Living Religions of the World 


gave offence to Christians. Jewish congregations 
are learning to leave out of their prayer book, as 
we saw above, prayers which are now meaningless 
in a more tolerant world. Christians should be 
equally willing to wipe away prejudices and an- 
cient errors. The greatest of virtues is charity, 
as we learn from the only Apostle who had what 
answers to the training of a rabbi. 

The question of Christian missions to the Jews 
is a very difficult one. Sections of our great cities 
where the poorer Jews congregate are dotted 
here and there by small missions usually of a 
“fundamentalist” type. Their presence is much 
resented by enlightened Jews. Their methods have 
not always been good and their success has been 
negligible in the number of converts and some- 
times disappointing in their quality. 

- On the other band there has been a constant 
drifting away from Judaism into Christian 
Churches, more especially, perhaps, when no spe- 
cial attempt has been made to reach the Jews as 
such. It is quite evident that Christian Churches 
should welcome Jews, who no longer find in the 
faith of their fathers an inspiration and a help 
in right living. Christian ministers should be able 
to show them that, far more than Talmud and 
Zohar, the New Testament is an inspired appen- 
dix to the Old. The prophetical arguments used 
by the older Christian apologetic were crude. They 
embodied however an abiding truth, namely that 
Christ performed in Himself the best of all Israel, 


Tani ass 113 


its hopes, its prophetical spirit, its priestly at- 
tempt at purification, the searchings of heart of 
its thinkers. Christ was Israel, and Israel still 
finds itself in Him. Apologetics thought out on 
this basis, and expressed without a proselytizing 
spirit, should give to the Jews detached from 
their ancestral religion the clear impression 
that they are quite welcome in a Church which 
was founded by Jewish idealists nineteen hun- 
dred years ago, and has, after all, pretty well 
preserved the real spiritual treasures of Judaism. 
One of the needs of Christian theology today 
is a modern presentation of the relation of the 
New Testament to the Old, preserving the es- 
sential values of the traditional view. Unless we 
find it, we run the danger of stultifying the 
Christian faith. Until we find it and know how 
to present it, the problem of our relation with 
Judaism will be often distressing to our minds 
and hearts. 
SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


A. 
G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter V. 
B. 
G. T. Moore. History of Religions. Vol. II, chapters III 
and IV. 
E. Levine. Judaism. London, Jack. New York: Dodge. 
C 


K. Kouter. Jewish Theology. New York: Macmillan, 1918. 
W. O. E. Orstertey and G. H. Box. The Religion and 
Worship of the Synagogue. 2d ed., London: 1911. 


114 The Living Religions of the World 


Article on Judaism in Hastings’ Hncyclopedia of Relig- 
ion and Ethics. 

The Jewish Encyclopedia a work of great accuracy and 
fairness, though naturally of unequal value, and is a 
mine of information. 

Controversial Literature, of polemic character, is not 
recommended. ‘Antisemitic’ publications had bet- 
ter be ignored, if one wants to understand Jewish 
religion so as to give the hand of fellowship to 
one’s neighbor. 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. Can you find in the prayers for the Sabbath quoted here 
some of the essential features of Judaism? 

2. How can one defend or attack the point of view that 
Christianity rather than Judaism fulfils Old Testament religion? 

8. Can a racial religion be justified today? 

4. Can you illustrate from your observation the statement 
that Judaism has fostered education ? 

5. How can we show in a practical form our sympathy for 
the efforts of Reform leaders of Judaism? 


CHAPTER VII 


ISLAM 


1. Arabia before Islam. 2. Preparation for Islam. 3. 
Life of Muhammad. 4. His character. 5. The Quran. 6. 
Hadith and Sunna. 7. The five pillars of Islam. 8. Faith. 
9. Prayer. 10. Friday observance. 11. Mosques. 12. Alms- 
giving. 13. Fasting. 14. Pilgrimage. 15. Holy war. 16. 
Predestination. 17. Eschatology. The Judgment. 18. 
Heaven and Hell. 19. The Caliphate. 20. Treatment of 
other religions. 21. Sects of Islam Shiah Wahhabis. 
Ahmadiyya movement. 22. Sufism. 23. Brotherhood. 24. 
Worship of saints. 25. Mahdism. 26. Duties of Moslems. 
27. Missionary activity. 28. The future of Islam. 29. Mos- 
lem Missions in Christian lands. 30. Christian missions 
in Moslem lands. 


1. Istam (surrender, submission), or as most 
Europeans and Americans prefer to call it erro- 
neously, Mohammedanism, is the only living grow- 
ing, and universal religion in the world besides 
Christianity. The Moslems or Muhammadans, as 
Westerners prefer also to call them, number about 
250,000,000. They are found mostly in tropical 
and sub-tropical lands. 

The home of Islam is Arabia. It is a vast but 
poor land. The only fertile parts are in the moun- 


115 


116 The Living Religions of the World 


tains of the South (Yemen) and the oases scat- 
tered through the rest of the country. 

Both town-dwellers and nomads among the 
Arabs believed in many gods and jinns (or spir- 
its). They worshipped idols, sacred stones, and 
trees, and also the stars and heavenly bodies. The 
most important sanctuary was at Mecca, a city 
built in a desolate valley but on an important 
trade-route, around the Kaabah, an old sanctuary 
of cubic form, in the wall of which was imbedded 
the sacred “Black Stone.” There was much gam- 
bling, drunkenness, and sensuality. Daughters were 
unwelcome and often buried alive.at birth; “The 
best son-in-law is the grave” was a common prov- 
erb. The position of women was low. The Arabs 
on the whole took very little interest in religion 
and their moral sense was undeveloped. Inter- 
tribal warfare and plundering was the normal 
condition. 

2. A number of Arabian tribes were partly 
Christianized in the sixth and seventh centuries. 
There were five bishoprics on the Persian gulf. 
There were also some strong Churches in South 
Arabia, which was for a time under the domina- 
tion of Christian Abyssinia. The Jews were strong 
there as well and they had also settled in the 
northern oases of the Hedjaz itself. In Mecca 
there were several individuals called Hanifs who 
were monotheists, and had probably some ac- 
quaintance with Judaism, and even with Chris- 
tianity. They were not organized, neither were 


Islam ; Ut7 


they aggressive in their hostility to the current 
idolatry. To what extent these various religious 
forces prepared the ground for Islam is an open 
question. It seems certain that Muhammad’s faith 
was influenced by Judaism or Christianity only 
in minor points. The essential was his own. 

3. Muhammad (The Praised) was born in Mecca 
about 570 A. D. He belonged to the tribe of the 
Quraish. His father died before his birth, and his 
mother, when he was an infant. The orphan was 
brought up, first by his grandfather, and later 
by an uncle. The family was poor, but had seen 
better days. 

At the age of twenty-five, Muhammad married 
a widow named Khadijah, fifteen years older 
than he, of good birth and wealthy. She bore him 
several children, two sons who died in infancy 
and four daughters. Their married life was very 
happy, and while Khadijah was living, a period 
of twenty-four years, Muhammad took no other 
wife. After her death he still spoke so much of 
their mutual love, that Ayishah, who was then 
his favorite wife, was more jealous of the old 
woman whom she had never seen, than of all the 
other wives of the prophet. 

When Muhammad approached his fortieth year, 
he became still more fond of solitude than before. 
He gave much thought to religion, a subject in 
which the Meccans were not particularly inter- 
ested. The Arabs he thought were a noble race, 
endowed with many gifts, and especially with a 


118 The Living Religions of the World 


beautiful language, and yet without a prophet 
of their own to proclaim again to them the lost 
faith of their ancestor Abraham. 
Burdened with his thoughts, Muhammad often 
withdrew for retreat and meditation into a cave 
at the fount of Mount Hira, about an hour’s walk 
from Mecca. There he heard a voice saying, 
“Read.” 
“What shall I read?” he answered, quite as- 
tonished, because he was illiterate. 
“Read in the name of Thy Lord who 
Created man from a clot of blood. 
Read, for Thy Lord is the most. bountiful 


Who taught (to write) with the pen 
Taught man what he knew not.” 


These lines form now the opening verses of the 
74th chapter (or Sura) of the Quran. 

Trembling with awe, Muhammad went home 
and told Khadijah what he had heard. She be- 
lieved him, encouraged and comforted him. 

Some time afterward the voice came back to 
him. It was the angel Gabriel, telling him, “Thou 
art the messenger of Allah.” Muhammad went 
back to Khadijah again. “Wrap me, wrap me,” he 
said, and thus the second message came to him, 
in words which form the beginning of the 73rd 
Sura. | 

At once Muhammad began to deliver the mes- 
sage. For ten years he labored in Mecca, preach- 
ing faith in Allah as the only God, whose apostle 
was Muhammad, and in the life to come with re- 


Islam 119 


wards and punishments. He exhorted men to 
abandon idolatry and to practise almsgiving and 
a righteous life. Portions of the Quran as they 
were revealed were committed to memory by the 
converts and -were recited as part of their daily 
prayers. 

The wealthy and the powerful in Mecca showed 
their hostility to the new religion, which dis- 
countenanced so clearly the worship of idols and 
thus seemed to endanger the preéminence of the 
Kaaba and of Mecca itself among the tribes of 
the Arabs. The Moslems were presecuted and 
placed under a ban. 

In 621, twelve men of Yathrib, who had come 
to Mecca to perform the ancient rites of pilgrim- 
age, accepted Islam. They went back to Yathrib. 
By their witnessing to the new religion, the num- 
ber of Moslems in that city had grown to seventy- 
three, when, in 622, Muhammad abandoned Mecca 
with seventy Moslems and settled in Yathrib, 
which took then the name of Medina (the City, 
i.e., of the Prophet). There the teaching of Islam 
became more definite. The emigration (Hijra) of 
Muhammad from Mecca to Medina was made the 
starting point of the Moslem calendar, whose 
years are connoted by the letters A. H. 

Very soon after he had arrived at Medina, the 
Prophet began to attack the caravans of the 
Quraish. At the battle of Badr (A. H. 2, A. D. 
624) he defeated a Meccan army of 905 men (in- 
cluding one hundred mail clad horsemen). Mu- 


120 The Living Religions of the World 


hammad had only 305 men and 2 horses. The fol- 
lowing year he was defeated at Uhud by a much 
stronger force, but the Quraish were unable to 
take Medina, and in 5 A.H., peace was made, 
after a war which had been marked by a great 
deal of savagery. In the year 8 A.H., the gates 
of Mecca were opened to the triumphant Muham- 
mad, who dealt very generously with his former 
enemies. All Arabs submitted to him and accepted 
Islam. The prophet died soon after (11 A. H., or 
632 A. D.). 

4. It was formerly quite customary among 
Christian controversialists to attack the charac- 
ter of Muhammad. And yet it would be absurd to 
deny that he was a remarkable character. Ner- 
yous, imaginative, taciturn, reserved, a man of 
very simple tastes, controlling easily the strong 
passions of the pure Semite, Muhammad had a 
remarkable force and fixedness of will. He was 
gentle, considerate, and highly respected. The 
name given to him was Al-Amin, the Faithful One. 
He was generous, as are all Arabs, but with- 
out ostentation. He remained poor, but his poverty 
was noble. He lived on dates and water, or barley 
bread. Milk and honey were luxuries of which he 
rarely partook. He was courteous but with great 
simplicity. He was fond of children and tender 
to animals. He gained the affection of many, even 
of those who knew him best. There was no truer 
friend. He was courteous but with great simplic- 
ity. He never was the first to withdraw his hand 


Islam 121 


from the one who offered him his. “He was as 
bashful as a veiled virgin,” said of him his wife 
Ayishah. That he became a polygamist after the 
death of Khadijah, when he himself was fifty 
years old, was not because of sensuality, but of 
generosity. Most of his wives were poor widows 
of champions of the faith killed in battle. That 
he was sincere, none but a controversialist may 
doubt—and even in that case, not very wisely. 
5. The Quran (recitation), or Koran as it is 
more commonly called, contains the revelations 
made by Allah to Muhammad. It is written in 
rhymed prose, the rhymes being very weak. It 
contains one hundred and fourteen Suras or 
chapters. The Fatiha (Opening) is the first Sura 
of the Quran. It is used very often by Moslems, 
not only at stated prayers, but on many occasions. 
This is its translation: 
“In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful! 
Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds, 
The Beneficent, the Merciful. 
King of the day of Judgment 
Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help. 
xuide us on the right path, 
The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed fa- 
vors, 
Not those upon whom wrath is brought down, nor those 
who go astray. Amen.” 


The style of the Quran is truly remarkable. 
Muhammad performed no miracles but often 
claimed that the Quran was the most wonderful 
of miracles. 


122 The Living Religions of the World 


It is very difficult to translate it. There are 
several English translations, the worst being by 
Sale, the best by Muhammad Ali. Better than 
Sale’s translation, but far from satisfactory, are 
the translation of Palmer, published in the Sacred 
Books of the East, and that of Rodwell, which at- 
tempts to give the Suras in chronological order. 

The Suras which follow the Fatiha are arranged 
according to their size, without regard to chron- 
ology or contents. The title of each Sura indi- 
cates whether it was composed in Mecca or Med- 
ina. Traditions which are apparently reliable give 
us the date of the Suras. The long Suras were 
usually revealed in Medina. The oldest are short. 
The characteristic doctrine of Islam which is 
the Unity of God is well expressed by an ans 
Meccan Sura. 

“The Unity (Sura 112) 


“In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful! 
Say, He, Allah is One. 

Allah is He on whom all depend. 

He begets not, nor is He begotten. 

And none is like unto Him.” 


6. The teaching of the Quran is completed by 
Hadith (tradition) and Sunna (way or practice). 
What the Prophet is reported to have said is 
Hadith. What he did is Sunna. The Sunna is there- 
fore derived from the Hadith. Each hadith is a 
short story preceded by a list of names of men 
who transmitted it orally from one to the other. 
Hadith were manufactured in abundance after 


Islam | veo 


Muhammad’s days when there was need of justi- 
fying a solution of new religious, moral, and po- 
litical problems. Some of the hadith are striking. 
We read in some of them. 


“When God created the creation, He wrote a book 
which is near Him upon the sovran Throne; and what is 
written in it is this: Verily my compassion overcometh 
my wrath. 

“A man’s giving in alms one piece of silver in his 
lifetime is better for him than giving one hundred when 
about to die. 

“Give the laborer his wage before his perspiration be 
dry. 

“Every woman who dieth, and her husband is pleased 
with her, shall enter into Paradise. 

“A man who behaveth ill to his slave will not enter 
into Paradise. 

“Forgive thy servant seventy times a day. 

“Whoso comforteth a woman who has lost her child 
will be covered with a garment in Paradise. 

“Paradise is at the foot of mothers.” 


7. The five pillars of Islam are faith, prayer, 
almsgiving, fasting, and the pilgrimage. 

8. Faith consists in bearing witness to the 
Unity of God by saying a formula which is as 
follows: “There is no God but Allah and Muham- 
mad is the apostle of Allah.” 

9. Prayer is to the Moslem a real duty. It should 
be performed five times a day. The first prayer 
is between dawn and sunrise, the second in the 
early afternoon, the third in the late afternoon, 
the fourth immediately after sunset, the fifth at 
any time between this and midnight. 


124 The Living Religions of the World 


The prayers are said in Arabic and are always 
preceded by ablution of the face, hands, and 
feet. When water is not available, dust or sand 
can be used. Prayers can be said anywhere, 
whether in a mosque, or in the house, in the field, 
or even in the street. Before the stated times of 
prayer, the faithful are called to perform this 
duty by a muezzin who recites the call to prayer 
or azan from the minaret of the mosque. This is 
the text of the Azan before morning prayer: 

“Allah is the greatest” (repeated four times). “I bear 
witness that there is no God but Allah” (twice). “I bear 
witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah” 
(twice). ‘Come to prayer” (twice). “Come to success” 


(twice). “Prayer is better than sleep” (twice). “Allah 
is the greatest” (twice). “There is no God but Allah.” 


10. There is no sabbath day among the Moslems, 
except, to some extent, Friday, which is the day 
when every one should attend the early afternoon 
prayer in the Great Mosque, and therefore cease 
from work for a time. 

11. There is no priesthood in Islam. When a 
number of the faithful pray together, one of them, 
distinguished only by his rank, his scholarship, 
or his piety, acts as imam or prayer-leader. He 
stands in front of the others, who usually make 
their ritual bowings and prostration synchronize 
with his. 

The mosques are oriented towards Mecca, which 
is the direction towards which all Moslems must 
pray. There are in them no images or statues 


Islam 125 


(which are forbidden in Islam) and no seats. 
There is a pulpit consisting of a flight of steps 
from which a short stereotyped sermon is de- 
livered at the Friday service. All should remove 
their shoes when entering a mosque. 

Islam is remarkable for a spirit of social equal- 
ity. Poor and rich, men of various ranks, stand 
side by side in prayer. Women are not however 
allowed to mingle with the men in the mosque 
and their attendance at services is not encour- 
aged. People do tarry in the mosque for quiet 
conversation or even for rest and sleep. 

12. Almsgiving, or rather the poor-rate, is for 
the benefit of the poor and needy, those in debt, 
those whose hearts are made to incline to truth, 
for the way of Allah (or propagation of Islam), 
and for the officials appointed to the administra- 
tion of these objects. It amounts to two and a 
half per cent of hoarded wealth. 

18. Fasting means abstinence of food and drink 
while it is light during the month of Ramadhan. 
It is connected with an increased religious zeal 
and spirituality. It is on the whole remarkably 
well observed, although it entails great hardships 
as soon as one lives outside of the tropical zone, 
when days may be very long. 

14. The pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca should be 
performed by every Moslem once in his lifetime, 
provided that he does not thereby cause hardship 
to those dependent upon him. The pilgrim must 
reach Mecca before the seventh day of the month 


126 The Living Religions of the World 


Zulhijjah. As soon as he comes to the boundary 
of the sacred territory surrounding Mecca, the 
pilgrim takes off his ordinary clothing and wears 
the ihram, which consists of two seamless sheets, 
leaving the head uncovered in the case of men. 
The pilgrimage consists in several ceremonies 
consisting in making circuits around the Kaabah, 
running between the two hills of Safa and Marwa, 
staying in the plain of Arafat, and sacrificing a 
sheep. The pilgrim is then called a hajji. 

The annual hajj has been a means of knitting 
together the Moslem world into a living unity. 
About one hundred thousand Moslems perform it 
annually. 

15. The Jehad (literally crn is the Holy 
War. It was enjoined against unbelievers who 
had to be conquered or converted. As for idolaters, 
they had to be converted or killed. The Jehad, 
like the Crusade, is now an antiquated notion. It 
has been so misused for imperialistic ends, that a 
proclamation of the Holy War would have no 
meaning today. All there is left of it is a strong 
community of feeling in all of Islam, which causes 
the Bengali Moslems to rejoice because of the 
successes of the men of Riff against the Spanish 
army, or to grieve when Moslems anywhere are 
ill treated by a European power. Enlightened Mos- 
lems spiritualize the notion of Jehad into a “Mos- 
lem Endeavor” for the Faith. 

It is often said that the reason why the Jehad 
was popular among Moslems is because any one 


Islam 127 


dying on the Path of Allah is certain of entering 
Paradise. However, there are many other ways of 
deserving heaven, according to the common be- 
lief, such as falling into a precipice, dying of 
love or of seasickness, or even dying in a foreign 
land. This extension of martyrdom leads us to 
think that the offer of heavenly reward was not 
such a conspicuous element in the call to Jehad, 
as Europeans seem to believe. 

16. The teaching of the Quran on predestina- 
tion is not definite. According to orthodox Is- 
lam, God is the Creator of men and of their acts, 
physical and intellectual. 

17. As soon as the dead have been placed in 
their tomb, the angels Munkar and Nakir ex- 
amine them on points of belief. Then the good 
and evil deeds of men are weighed on the scale 
and the souls are made to cross a bridge stretched 
over hell, which broadens for the righteous and 
becomes narrower than the edge of a sword for 
the wicked. 

18. The Moslem Paradise is a glorified oasis 
where the soil is musk and the rivers milk, wine, 
and honey. There the blessed, sheltered from 
heat and cold, clothed in silk and gold cloth, rest 
on golden couches amidst shady trees, while at- 
tendants ever young bring to them cups of non- 
intoxicating wine and all kind of fruits. The 
houris, beautiful girls with eyes of gazelles and 
bodies transparent and pure like pearls, endowed 
with everlasting youth, are the wives of the 


128 The Living Religions of the World 


blessed, who may, however, have with them their 
own wives as well, if they so desire. In hell the 
wicked will suffer from fire, so strong that it 
melts stones, a scorching wind, and thick smoke. 
They will drink boiling water and eat thorns. 
They will be clothed in burning clothes, drenched 
with boiling water, crushed with iron maces. The 
pains of hell are not eternal. Some Moslem theo- 
logians have allegorized these descriptions. They 
think that the houris of Paradise are a man’s own 
deeds and that the imagery of heaven and hell 
only sets forth in lurid terms the realization of 
the possession or of the loss of God. The mystics 
of Islam taught that man is an epitome of heaven 
and hell, as Fitzgerald’s Omar Khayyam says: 

“Heav’n but the Vision of fulfilled Desire, 

And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire, 


Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves 
So late emerged from, shall so soon expire.” 


19. At the death of Muhammad, Abu-Bekr was 
acknowledged as caliph (vicar) of the Apostle of 
Allah. He was a man of lofty character, a real be- 
liever, sincere and austere. As soon as the news 
of Muhammad’s death reached the rest of Arabia, 
most of the tribes rejected Islam, and had to be 
reconquered and reconverted. In 634, Omar suc- 
ceeded Abu Bekr and began the conquest of the 
world. When he died ten years afterwards, Syria, 
Egypt, and Persia had been conquered. Othman 
was a less worthy and a less successful ruler. The 
fourth caliph was Ali, husband of Fatimah, 


Islam ; 129 


daughter of Muhammad. After his death (661) 
Moawiya founded the Omayyad dynasty of caliphs 
which lasted nearly a century at Damascus. This 
dynasty was succeeded in 750 by the Abbasid 
caliphate of Bagdad, so well known to all western 
readers of the Arabian Nights. 

20. It is not true that the Moslems offered to 
the conquered countries the dilemma, “Islam or 
the sword.” That choice is forced only upon the 
heathen, not on Christians or Jews or even Zor- 
oastrians. These subjects of the Empire were made 
to pay special taxes, but they were, on the other 
hand, exempt from military service. The Omay- 
yads did not by any means seek the conversion 
of their subjects for fear of decreasing their own 
revenue. 

Not only were not the Christians usually per- 
secuted by the Moslems, but most of the adminis- 
tration offices were in their hands at least in 
Egypt and Syria. The Jews did not fare as well 
as the Christians. The Moslems treated them very 
much as medieval Europeans did, but without the 
spasmodic massacres indulged in by the latter. 

21. Today the largest number of Moslems are 
Sunnite and form one Church. The authority in 
matters of faith is not vested in any visible or- 
ganization. There are fewer sects in Islam than 
in other religions. 

The Shiah or Shiites form the largest dissent- 
ing body. They number about fifteen million and 
are found mostly in Persia, in India, in Mesopo- 


130 The Living Religions of the World 


tamia, and even in Arabia. The Shiah perform the 
pilgrimage to Mecca like the Sunnites. Other 
sects of Islam are unimportant except two. The 
first is the sect of the Wahhabis, Puritans of Is- 
lam, austere, uncompromising, even hostile to 
heathen survivals in Islam, such as the hajj cere- 
monies. The second is the Ahmadiyya Movement, 
which was started in 1889 at Qadian in the Pun- 
jab, by Ahmad, who declared that he was the 
Mahdi, as well as Christ, and Kalki, the last 
avatar of Vishnu. This sect numbers probably a 
hundred thousand adherents. It has organized 
missionary work in several Ou with paid 
missionaries. 

22. The Sufis are the mystics of Islam. Their 
name is derived from their clothing of coarse wool 
(Sufa). Sufism was influenced by Neo-Platonism 
and especially by Christian asceticism. Sufis 
writers quote many hadith, justifying their point 
of view, which are of doubtful authority. Seekers 
after God place themselves under a spiritual di- 
rector who guides them on the “Path.” They prac- 
tise poverty, hence their name of fakir (poor 
man) and dervish (mendicant). The discipline of 
the Path includes fasting, silence, solitude, end- 
less repetitions of the name of Allah, meditation, 
illumination, and ecstacy. 

The ultimate teaching of Sufism cannot be un- 
derstood without following the Path—or knowing 
a similar path in Christianity. They write of wine 
and earthly love, of carouse and revelry, using 


Islam Si 


them as symbols of the Love of God. God is the 
Cupbearer. God is the Beloved. 
Jalaluddin writes: 
“Lo, from the flagon of Thy love, O Lord, my soul is 
swimming, 
And ruined all my body’s house of clay 
When first the Giver of the grape my lonely heart 
befriended, 
Wine fired my bosom and my veins filled up.” 


The Beloved and the lover are one in the mystic 
unity of Love. Thus Al Hallaj says: 

“Thy Spirit is mingled in my spirit even as wine is 
mingled with pure water. When anything touches Thee, 
it touches me. Lo, in every case Thou art I.” 


23. Sufism under a more or less diluted form 
is taught in many of the brotherhoods of Islam, 
who have hundreds of thousands of members, es- 
pecially in Africa. The members of the fraternity 
are either professed dervishes living in a monas- 
tery, or laymen who come to the house of the order 
at stated times for mystical exercises. Well known 
to tourists are the howling and the whirling der- 
vishes, and the Aissauas, who slash their bodies 
with swords and eat fire and glass, without any 
sign of pain. 

24. In all the lands of Islam one can see small 
buildings which are the tombs of welis (saints). 
Some of these saints are really local gods of 
Hellenistic paganism, which became Christian 
saints, until the conquest of the land by Islam 
changed them into Moslem saints. Saints are 


132 The Living Religions of the World 


called on to help in time of trouble. They heal the 
sick and grant children to the barren. They per- 
form miracles. 

Living saints are also givers of blessing, more 
especially the heads of brotherhoods whose dignity 
is hereditary. 

25. Messianism looms large in Moslem belief. 
From time to time, an individual arises and 
claims to be the Mahdi, sent and guided by Allah 
to restore decadent Islam, and to establish a 
reign of righteousness before the last day. There 
is a belief that such a reformer may rise in every 
century. There is also a belief that Jesus is the 
only Mahdi and that He will come at the end of 
days. 

26. In Islam there is nothing like the caste sys- 
tem of India or the recent drawing of the color 
line so conspicuous in the Anglo-Saxon world. 
There is also a good deal of generosity and of 
true hospitality. The duties of a Moslem to an- 
other are six: 

1. When you meet a Moslem, say Salam 
(peace) to him. 

2. When he invites you to dinner, accept it. 

3. When he asks you for advice, give it to 
him, 

4. When he sneezes and says “Praise be 
to Allah,” you should say “May Allah 
have compassion upon thee.” 

5. When he is sick, visit him. 

6. When he dies, follow his bier. 


Islam 133 


The Quran allows polygamy. The number of 
wives should not exceed four. The condition of 
women was greatly improved by Islam in Arabia. 
For economic reasons monogamy is the rule and 
polygamy the exception. A worse evil than poly- 
gamy is divorce, which is exceedingly common. 

27. As a missionary religion, Islam has an ex- 
cellent record. It is now conquering Africa. This 
success is due to several causes. 

First. It is a very simple religion. It is accom- 
modating in its first stage, then fanatical enough 
to consolidate its conquests. 

Secondly. It has no color line. 

Thirdly. It voices African nationalism better 
than any other religious agency. 

Fourthly. It has no cumbrous organization, no 
constant money raising drives. 

Fifth. Islam is practically one, while Christen- 
dom is divided. 

Sixth. The Moslem brotherhoods provide an ex- 
cellent organization and a certain amount of prac- 
tical mysticism. 

Seventh. Generally speaking, every Moslem - is a 
missionary. 

Eighth. Moslems, by praying in public, impress 
favorably the African. 

Ninth. Islam allows polygamy and does not 
disrupt the family of a convert as does Chris- 
tianity. 

Tenth. Islam provides counter magic by the use 
of talismans. 


134 The Living Religions of the World 


Eleventh. The Moslem heaven is more lurid than 
the Christian heaven. 

Twelfth. Islam makes the convert more digni- 
fied. 

28. What is the future of Islam? Yellow press 
makes much of a Pan-Islamic peril, simply be- 
cause the yellow press must live. There is nat- 
urally no danger to Europe or America in the 
Moslem world today. Politically, Islam is in com- 
plete decadence. The only independent Moslem 
countries are Turkey, now much reduced in size, 
the emirates of Arabia, Afghanistan, and Persia. 
One hundred million Moslems live in the British 
Empire. They are indeed more numerous than the 
Christians in it. Holland has also more Moslems 
than Christians under its rule. If the conversion 
of Africa to Islam goes on, as it does now, France 
may soon be in the same position. There is no 
political unity in Islam. Since Turkey banished 
the last caliph for reasons good and bad, there is 
no visible head of Islam. 

And yet Islam is not declining as a religion. It 
has never been so strong as it is today as a mis- 
sionary Church. 

29. Moslem missions in Europe and America 
are conducted mostly by the Ahmadiyya. In Lon- 
don the strict Ahmadiyya have a small mission. 
A far more successful work was founded by 
Kamal-ud-Din, who belonged to a branch of the 
Ahmadiyya movement which does not apparently 


Islam | 135 


differ much from orthodox Islam. This mission 
has a prayer-house in London and holds services 
in a beautiful little mosque at Woking near Lon- 
don. The stricter Ahmadiyya founded a mission 
in the United States. Hundreds of converts were 
made among the negroes of Chicago. It seems that 
these Chicago converts are not very deeply 
grounded in Islamic knowledge and that back- 
sliding is quite common. The services have no 
singing, and the preaching none of the arousing 
qualities which the colored American likes. Were 
a real leader to arise, who could voice with en- 
thusiasm the dissatisfaction caused by the color- 
line, the situation would be different. The Ahmadi- 
yya are also at work in Berlin. Even the leaders 
of these missions do not expect to see large num- 
bers of Christians converted to Islam. 

30, What of Christianity and Islam? Mission- 
ary work among Moslems was most difficult before 
the World War. In countries where Islam is 
firmly established it had completely failed. Only 
on the margin of Islam, where it was established 
yesterday, as it were, among the animistic peoples 
of the Dutch East Indies, were any converts made 
in large numbers. 

Today, Moslems resent very much the harsh- 
ness, the unfairness, and what they call the dis- 
honesty of European governments and of their 
diplomats. The anti-Turkish attitude of the Chris- 
tian Church at home, during the attempted dis- 


136 The Living Religions of the World 


memberment of Turkey, will not be forgotten for 
many years. It will make still more difficult a con- 
version of the Moslem world to Christianity. 

If Christians want to show the value of their 
religion to the Moslem world, they must clearly 
and openly disassociate themselves from, and dis- ° 
approve of, European imperialism. We are in- 
clined to think that the best way of approach for 
Christianity is through Sufism. 

Islam, like all other religions, is at the cross 
roads today. The political downfall of political Is- 
lam is distressing to the Moslems. The invasion 
by European capitalism and machine-made luxury 
is destructive of the ideals of the past. The end 
of the Caliphate, the emanicipation of women in 
Turkey, the growing unbelief coming with modern 
education, the practical difficulties in the way of 
the hajj, which may be the outcome of the growth 
of Wahhabi power, all these are problems which 
Islam must solve. 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
9 Acs 
G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter VI. 
B. 


G. F. Moore. History of Religions. Vol II. Chapters 
XVI-XXII, 
D, M. Kay. The Semitic Religions, Lecture V. Edinburgh, 
19138. 
C. 


MAULVI MUHAMMAD ALI. The Holy Qur-an containing 
the Arabic Text with Translation and commentary. 


Islam 137 


The Islamic Review Office, Oriental Road, Woking, 
Surrey, England. 
The commentary is of modernist teaching. 
J. H. Ropweiu. The Koran Translated from the Arabic 
(in Everyman’s Library), New York: Dutton. 
Articles on Muhammad and Muhammadanism in Hast- 
ings’ Hncycl. of Rel. a. Ethics. 

D. B. Macponatp. The Religious Attitude and Life in 
Islam. University of Chicago Press, 1909. 

R. A. NicHouson. The Mystics of Islam. London, Bell, 
1914, 

An idealized aspect of the subject of Sufism can be seen 

in Edwin Arnold, Pearls of the Faith. Boston, 18838 
(often found second hand). 


QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 


1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of praying 
in public as the Moslems do? 

2. Compare Jehad and Crusade. Are we justified in using 
the last word today? 

3. Is it legitimate to describe life after death in symbolical 
terms? 

4. In what way could we show clearly that we disassociate 
ourselves from past errors or from present unfortunate aspects 
of our form of civilization? 

5. Is a policy of clear cut opposition justified and wise in 
dealing with a religion like Islam? 


CONCLUSION, 


THE GREATER PART Of the “civilized” world today 
is Christian. It is becoming so more and more, 
and the whole world with it. There is of course a 
good deal of unbelief in Christian lands. It is due 
to a misunderstanding. It is therefore an acci- 
dent and a calamity. Conscientious Christians are 
not called upon to bear the burden of the whole 
world, not even in the spiritual sphere. They are 
only expected, if they be men who do not shirk 
their higher duty as men, to leave the world im- 
mediately near them better than they found it. 
At the same time, they are expected to become bet- 
ter men and women. 

If our religion does not help us to realize in a 
measure this ideal, there is something wrong, 
either with the way we assimilate religion, or 
with the form of religion itself. 

Religion must therefore be tested. There is no 
disrespect in that. Religion is only a human at- 
tempt and a human quest. It must pass the test 
of reason, of science, of history. Provided of 
course that reason be logical, that science be me- 
thodical, that history be well informed. Religion 


138 


Conclusion 139 


must be ethical and ethically inspiring. It must 
pass the test of universality, for the best bears 
within itself the seed of eternity. 

We personally have come to see in the Christian 
faith unlimited potentialities. If it were not so, 
it would hardly be Christian. We dare not, for 
our part, strike away from our conception of 
Christianity these sayings of Christ: “I, when I 
am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
to Me” (John 12, 32) ; “I say unto you, that many 
shall come from the east and west, and shall sit 
down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in 
the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 8, 11). So far they 
have come mostly from the West, and the East 
must have a chance. 

Note that they must come and be drawn up- 
wards. The question of the relation of the Chris- 
tian religion to non-Christian faiths is therefore 
not one of adaptation of the former to other forms 
of the Quest of Man after God. It is a question 
of integration. The Christian message should be 
such that a Hindu may rightly think that he can 
best be himself, as a Hindu, when he is also a 
Christian. The same should be true of the Chinese, 
of the African, of the Bedouin. 

The claim of universality has been made of 
course for other religions. 

Swami Vivekananda said in his Madras Lec- 
tures: “I am an imaginative man, and my idea is 
the conquest of the whole world by the Hindu 
race . . . Up, India, and conquer the world with 


140 The Living Religions of the World 


your spirituality! . . . The world wants it; with- 
out it the world will be destroyed.” * 

The same claim has been made for Buddhism, 
but in more measured terms, for it is a religion 
of kindness, courteous and considerate of the 
feelings of others. 

The claim has been made for Islam. “Islam as 
the religion of humanity,” is one of the points 
made by Maulvi Muhammad Ali, in the preface 
to his translation of the Quran. “The scope of re- 
ligion, in the true sense of the word, extends as 
far back and is as wide as humanity itself, the 
fundamental principles always remaining the 
same, the accidents changing with the changing 
needs of humanity.” 

One weak point about these forms of religion 
is that they integrated too strong a racial ele- 
ment. Muhammad was probably right in presery- 
ing in the pilgrimage-rites of Islam a good deal of 
purified Arabian paganism, but this element has 
to be explained away to Westerners. Buddhism 
is too closely connected with the subtlest of arm- 
chair psychologies and to Indian pessimism. 
Hinduism is bound to caste and to the doctrine 
of Karma. None of these religions could shake off 
these basic elements. It is so true that Kuropean 
or American converts to Buddhism, Islam, or to 
some approximation of Hinduism, are no longer 
at home in their own land, unless their conversion 
be extremely superficial. They usually change 


Quoted in Farquhar, A primer of Hinduism, p. 162. 


Conclusion — 141 


their English name and they need to make periodi- 
cal visits to the land of their adopted faith. Ap- 
parently none of these three religions can integ- 
rate Western life. Their claim to universality is 
therefore sentimental, or dogmatic, or generous. 
It does not stand the test of reality. 

The universalism of Christianity has admittedly 
been endangered by an hellenistic overemphasis 
on intellectualism, or by a western implicit faith 
in administrative machinery, or by an alliance 
with imperialism and racial prejudice. But all 
these elements are unessential to it and can be 
ignored without danger. From the day of Pente- 
cost there has been a cosmopolitan element in 
Christianity. The very smallness of its home-base 
in Judea, its early success, the fall of Jerusalem, 
gave it at once the character of a world religion 
proof against the worst lack of understanding of 
its followers. | 

The whole world—and that means also’ our- 
selves—has much to learn and a good deal to for- 
get in the way of religion. Let us trust it will 
not forget too much. As for us, let us not ask 
others to forget too much. On the other hand, re- 
ligion is not religiosity affected with mental 
nomadism. It may, it must, prove all things, but 
also hold fast that which is good. 

As Christians we may summarize our attitude 
towards other religions under the following 
heads: | 

First. There is a certain underlying unity in 


142 The Living Religions of the World 


all religions, probably due to the psychological 
unity of mankind. 

Secondly. Each religion has been of value. 
Through the worst religion there is some kind of 
a path leading to God; indeed from the point of 
view of the prologue of the fourth Gospel, this 
path is lighted by the universal Christ, “the 
light which lighteth every man” (John 119). 

Thirdly. Each religion is acceptable to God, at 
least as a preparatory stage. “I see quite plainly 
that God has no favorites, but that he who rever- 
ences Him and lives a good life in any nation is 
welcomed by Him” (Acts 10, 34-35). 

Fourthly. We have not yet understood the real 
Christ. That may be only when we see Him “face 
to face.” Until then, we see, as in an antique brass 
mirror, indistinctly. We are only approximating 
a true knowledge of Him. 

Fifthly. We are members one of another. Our 
knowledge of God and of Christ suffers from the 
fact that there is much unbelief in our own lands 
and also much hardness, fanaticism, and sin 
within the Churches and ourselves. We may feel 
secure in the fold kept by the good Shepherd, but 
epidemics are not stopped by barriers. Besides 
the flock must go out to the pasture—and there 
are no barriers in it. Today the pasture is the 
whole world. Influenza in the mental and spiritual 
world travels fast. Racial religion is now mean- 
ingless. 

Sixth. There is no true religion without abso- 


Conclusion — 143 


lute sincerity. When two augurs cannot look at 
each other without laughing, the system is 
doomed. 

Seventh. There are saints in other religions. 
By their fruits we know them. 

Highth. There are great differences between the 
various religions. They vary in value. 

Ninth. Religions, being human, grow, decline, 
and die. We do not care to murder them, but we 
do not deny that the marks of old age are warn- 
ings. We see them on many religions. 

Tenth. Religion must be able to bear the test 
of the most difficult conditions, social, economic, 
intellectual. 

Eleventh. The best religion is the one that pre- 
serves most of the best in others. There is Relig- 
ion in religions. 

Twelfth. Religion must evolve in time and space 
and yet remain itself. 

If these principles are granted, Buddhism, Hin- 
duism, and even Islam, fail before some of the 
tests. Christianity as we understand it passes 
them all. In its Founder is focussed every ray of 
light that shines in the world. He is Light of 
Light, Truth of Truth, and Love of Love. 


144 The Lwing Religions of the World 


SUPPLEMENTARY READING 


A. 
G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter XV. 


B. 
©. L. Dissre. A Grammar of Belief. Milwaukee, More- 
house, 1922. 
BE. S. Drown. The Creative Christ. New York: Macmillan, 
1922. 
W. Temprte. The Universality of Christ. New York: 
Doran, 1921. 


QUESTIONS FoR DISCUSSION 


1. In what way do the various religions studied by us fail 
to pass some of the tests enumerated as the twelve principles 
of appreciation of religious values? 

2. What would you have to lose if you became a real Bud- 
dhist, or a true Moslem? : 

3. In what way can Christianity be better understood and 
better applied by us, so that it may pass the same tests? 

4. What should be our attitude towards the efforts made by 
members and leaders of other religions to transform their re- 
ligion so that it would pass these tests? 

5. You have heard the statement that “All religions are the 
same.” Does our study modify your previous attitude towards 
this statement? If so, in what direction? Compare this to the 
eleventh statement in this chapter. 


Index | 145 


INDEX 


This index does not include items listed in the synopses 


at the head of each chapter. 


A 


Al Hallaj, 181. 
Amida, 71, 87. 
arhat, 30. 
avatar, 42. 
azan, 124. 


B 


Boddhisattva, 30. 


bo-tree, 17. 
Brahma, 41. 

Cc 
Chuang-Tze, 64. 


D 


Dharma, 25. 
derwish, 130. 
Durkheim, 2. 
Durga, 41. 


F 


Fatiha, 121. 
fakir, 1380. 


G 
Gandhi, 55. 


H 


Hajj, 125. 
hasidim, 108. 
hazzan, 95. 


Ihram, 126. 
Imam, 124. 


J 
Jinn, 116. 
jehad, 126. 
joss, 59. 

K 


Kaddish, 109. 
Kali, 41, 51. 
Kalki, 42. 
Kama, 48. 
kami, 80. 

kol nidre, 101. 


146 The Living Religions of the World 


kosher, 104. 
kshatriya, 43. 
Kwanyin, 71. 


L 


Lakshmi, 41 
linga, 48. 


M 


Mana, 4. 
muezzin, 124. 


N 
Nirvana, 22. 


oO 


Oleott, 32. 


Pp 


Parvati, 41. 
Parsva, 34. 


PRINTED IN U. S, A. BY MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO., MILWAUKEE, WIS. 


paryas, 53. 
purana, 45. 


S 


Sangha, 25. 
Sarasvati, 41. 
seder, 100. 
shiite, 129. 
Shiva, 41. 
shema, 102. 
stupa, 31. 
sunnite, 129. 


+ 


Tabu, 5. 
Tao, G1.) 
torii, 81. 
totemism, 2, 12. 


WwW 
Weli, 131. 





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